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PRICE, 50 CENTS. 

T. QREINER'S GARDEN SERIES. 

No. 2. 



The Young 
Market Gardener 



V/v nr CO. 



BEGINNER'S GUIDE. 



*-"^i 



'.nsn'Kr-r^ r"^ 





The Youn^ 
MARKET GARDENER 



BEGINNER'S GUIDE. 



PART I— A LITTLE PIT WELL BUILT. 
PART II— A LITTLE PLAT WELL TILLED. 
PART III.— A LITTLE PURSE WELL FILLED. 



"i ^. IXlXJTJsa?i^A.TE!ID 







3I- :.^ec 



BY T. GREINER. ^2^<— 






ALL RIGHTS RESERVED! ^^'^^' '^'p 

0CT12^.B9b 




SPRING, 1896. ^V/^ ^/ 



COPYRIGHTED, 1695. 
By T. QREINER, LA SAL4.E, N. Y. 



u 



5*^r 



THE J, W. KLEIN PTO, CO., 

SENECA STRSET, CORNER TERRACE, 

BUFFALO, N. Y, 



CONTENTS 



Writer's Reasons. An Introduction. — The Effects. Fair 
Warning. Who is the Man ? The Right Man. Capital 
Required. The Right Place 5-1 1 

PART I.— A lyiTTi^K Pit Wei.1. BU11.T. Greenhouse 
Construction and Use. 

Chapter I. — Beginner's Greenhouses. — An Absolute Need. 

Location. Size. A Make-Shift. Small Greenhouse. 15-19 

Chapter II. — Details of Greenhouse Consti'uction . — Green- 
house Walls. Glassing. Soft Putty. Glassing Gable 
Ends 20-26 

Chapter III. — Heating the Greenhouse. — The Water Heat- 
er. Cross Section of Greenhouse. Ground Plan. 
Other Houses. Side-Hill Houses 27-33 

Chapter IV. — Use of the Greenhouse. — Bench and Potting 
Soil. Crowding Crops. Forcing Lettuce. Watering 
Lettuce. Varieties of Forcing Lettuce. Lettuce 
Enemies. Radishes. Cresses. Rhubarb. Asparagus. 
Mushrooms. The New Mushroom 34-50 

Chapter V. — Plants for Spring Setting. — Damping Oflf. 
Onion Plants. Cabbage and Cauliflower Plants. 
Celery Plants. Beet Plants. Tomato Plants for Own 
Use. Tomato Plants For Sale. Plants and Cuttings. 
Egg Plants. Pepper Plants. Forcing Cucumbers and 
Tomatoes 51-71 



IV CONTENTS. 

Chapter VI, — Hot-Beds and Cold- Frames. — Construction. 

Manure for Hot-Beds 72-74 

PART II.— A L1TT1.E PivAT Wici,!. T11.1.ED. Open Air 

Operations. 
Chapter VII.— What Shall We Plant?— ^^x\y Vegetables. 77-80 

Chapter VIII. — Manures for the Garden. — Applying 
Manures. Composting Manures. Wood Ashes. Other 
Sources of Plant Foods. Amounts of Manure 81-85 

Chapter IX. — The Perennial Crops for Money. — Aspara- 
gus. Rhubarb. Winter Onions. Strawberries. Other 
Fruits 86-92 

Chapter X. — Early Crops Jor Early Money. — Green Peas. 

Onions for Bunching 93-95 

Chapter XI. — Vegetables from Seed. — Preparing the Seed 
Bed. Spinach. Radishes. Celery Plants. Parsley. 
Beets. Carrots 96-101 

Chapter XII .—Early Plants and Later (7r^/5.— Setting 
Early Plants. Later Crops from Seed. Early Potatoes. 
Late Potatoes. Sweet Corn. Vines. Setting Plants 
Again. Celery. Successive Planting. Cultivation.. 102-110 

PART III.— A IviTTi^E Purse WeivI. Fii.i,ed. Working 

THE Market. 
Chapter XIII.— Ways of 5<?//zV/^.— Commission Dealings. 

Peddling 113-114 

Chapter XIV.— Preparing Vegetables for Market.— ^&sn 

Fruit in New Packages. Washing Vegetables 115 -116 

Appendix. — A Final Suggestion. — Horticultural Journ- 
als. Garden Books 1 17-118 



WRITER'S REASON, 



AN INTRODUCTION. 



pOR years I and other enthusiastic writers have 
been telling, in books and periodicals, about 
the pleasures and profits to be found in gardening. 
This has had its effects. One of these effects is the 
readiness with which many young people, when they 
see that their father's farming does not yield satis- 

The Effects. ^^^^^^^ returns, or when they become 
' dissatisfied with their condition in life, 
and their mode of earning their living as clerks, 
teachers, railroad employes, etc., turn to market 
gardening as a supposedly more profitable business, 
and an occupation which, perhaps, may afford them 
a life of greater ease. The moths are drawn to the 
light. When I see this one effect of our teachings, 
I sometimes fear that we have overstated our case^. 



6 A WAKNING. 

and that our golden promises are attracting some 
young people with the same effect to them that be- 
ing drawn to the light has upon the moths. 

On the other hand, we cannot leave everything in 
absolute darkness for the sake of saving the fool- 
flies which, instead of being guided by a clear light, 
are only blinded by it and drawn into their own 
destruction. The light is needed. As another ef- 
fect of our teachings, thousands of people are en- 
abled to make a fair living as market gardeners, 
and tens of thousands have good home gardens, and 
enjoy the blessings found in well-arranged beds, 
thrifty vegetation, and a full home supply of fresh 
vegetables and fruits. 

Anyone who expects to find in market gardening 
a combination of "big profits and a life of ease,'' 
makes a big mistake, and will find his 
wings badly singed on the first contact 
with reality. Anyone who earns fair wages in other 
occupations, as clerk, station agent, butcher or 
preacher, but thinks he can do better in market gar- 
dening, of which, as yet, he knows nothing, is only 
taking a leap from a safe and solid bank upon very 
thin ice. All the chances are against success. And 
when the new recruit imagines himself to be smarter 
than all the rest of mankind, and thinks his final 
success is a dead-sure thing anyway, I consider his 
case entirely hopeless. These people are not the 
ones for whom this book is chiefly intended. Be- 
fore they can hope to become successful market gar- 
deners, they must go through a course of practical 
training in tilling the soil, either by hiring out to a 
successful market gardener for at least a year or 



FAIR WARNING. 7 

two, or by starting with a home garden and gradu- 
ally extending it into commercial operations. 

People with a natural liking for garden work, and 
having had some practical experience with it, are 
the ones who will make a success of it. They know 
that success is worth some effort, and they will be 
willing to work — and work hard — for it. At some 
seasons of the year long working hours are unavoid- 
able; at other times the work is less pressing. But 
whether requiring eighteen hours a day or six hours, 
it is an occupation that suits their tastes and keeps 
them interested all the time. This class of recruits 
in market gardening usually know that they must 
"look before they leap," and, wisely, they seek in- 
formation wherever it can be had. For the people 
with an earnest purpose in view, people who are 
willing to sacceed by close application to their busi- 
ness and all its details, this treatise is alone in- 
tended. They often overwhelm me with questions 
about the business in general, the markets, the crops, 
greenhouse building, hot-bed construction and man- 
agement, etc., and in some way I have to answer 
them. It is, therefore, a condition and not a theory 
that confronts me. In publishing this book I simply 
yield to necessity. 

Having given the raison d^etre^ I do not deem it 
necessary to make further excuses for my temerity. 
Quite the contrary. I know this information is 
needed. It fills a gap. I expect that it will be a 
welcome help to the class of people for which it is 

intended. 

^ ^ -jf 

True, it is the man himself, in the first place, on 



8 THE RIGHT MAN. 

whom the outcome depends. The true gardener can 
succeed even if the surroundings are not 
th^^Man? ^Specially favorable. So also can a person 
of quite inferior abilities make a half suc- 
cess of an undertaking when he happens to be placed 
amid especially favorable conditions. But it re- 
quires the happy combination of the right man and 
the right place for a whole and unqualified success. 
It is not safe even for the right man to take hold of 
market gardening as a life-business under just the 
local conditions in which he happens to be placed. 
He will not be satisfied with earning barely enough 
to live, and to pay him for his actual work at cur- 
rent rates of labor. He wants something for good 
management, and for the exercise of good judgment. 
He is entitled to pay for head work as well as hand 
work. The question then resolves itself into two 
parts, viz: (1) Who is the right man ? (2) Where 
is the right place ? 

In a general way I have already designated the 

right man as the one who has a natural talent 

and love, inborn or acquired, for 2:arden 

The Eight Man. , mi • i • u 

work, ihis, however, is by no means 
all of it. There are two great problems which the 
successful market gardener must solve, namely: 
first, to grow garden products; and second, to sell 
them. He has to assume the role not only of 
gardener, but also of salesman. Frequently the 
last-named task is by far the most important, and 
the most difficult. Yet if he excels in either one, it 
will materially help him in the other. Superior 
products sell themselves; but it takes a good sales- 
man to obtain satisfactory prices for ordinary stujff, 



CAPITAL REQUIRED. 



when there is much competition. And competition 
we must expect, and prepare for. The right man, 
therefore, is in the first place a good gardener, who, 
by close application and by the utilization of all 
means of progress, keeps ahead of the rank and file, 
and consequently produces earlier vegetables or 
better ones, than his competitors bring into the 
market. He is also a good salesman, packing his 
products in attractive shape, and bringing them as 
regularly as clockwork to his customers whom he 
selects in accordance with the quality of his pro- 
ducts. There are always plenty of people who 
appreciate a good article and are willing to pay for 
it. The producers of trash must find sale in the 
Italian or Negro quarters of the cities, and accept 
any price that this class of purchasers are willing 
to pay. 

The right man, too, must have a little capital. It 
is always best if he has a place of his own, and this 
need not be large. Much can be done on a very few 

Capital Required. ^^^^' ^^ ^^^^- ^^ ^^^^ ^^ plentiful 
and cheap, he may have a sufiiciency 
to support horse and cow. Otherwise five acres 
would be enough for a start. The capital should be 
sufficient to pay for the place and the implements 
and equipment needed. Among the latter is a 
small forcing pit or greenhouse and a number of 
hot-bed sashes. Outside of the place and horse, $400 
or $500 might answer for a small begiuDing. There 
is no need of going beyond the reach of one's avail- 
able capital. If the business does not prove profit- 
able, the less money invested the better. If it turns 
out as anticipated, the profits from it will soon put 



10 SELECTION OF PLACE. 

the right man in the situation to extend his opera- 
tions. In a few years' time much can be done from 
even a very modest start. Large oaks from little 
acorns grow, you know. 

But the right man should also be in the right 

place, such a place, namely, which gives him the 

opportunities required not only to 

The Eight Place. ^^ , ^^ i. ^ i ^ n 

grow good produce, but also to sell 

it. No use growing anything that you cannot sell. 
A good near market, indeed, is a consideration of 
first importance. It is not always — nor even ordi- 
narily — the largest city which affords the best 
market. There are plenty of small cities and towns 
where better prices can be obtained for garden pro- 
ducts than in New York City, Boston or Philadel- 
phia. The large cities are usually well supplied 
and often overstocked, while many inland towns 
are not even decently provided with good garden 
products. By all means and above all things look 
out for a good market. In the selection of soil I 
would give a naturally- drained, warm, sandy loam 
the preference. There is always a premium on 
earliness. You should have at least a little spot of 
such warm soil, protected by buildings, tree belts, 
or in some other way, at the North and West, and 
perhaps slightly sloping to South or Southeast. 
Some of the land may be of a more clayey or mucky 
character. This may come handy for some crops. 
If the farm or any part ofdt affords natural oppor- 
tunities for irrigation, this is a chance not to be 
neglected. Excessive richness of the soil in not an 
indispensable condition. If the soil is in a good 
state of fertility, all the better. But I would 



SELECTION OF PLACE. 11 

rather take the poorest soil of the right composition 
(warm loam) and in the right place, depending on 
the indispensable annual manure applications to 
make it rich, than the very richest soil of unde- 
sirable character, or undesirably located. In short, 
the right place is a matter of the greatest conse- 
quence, and the right man will examine pretty 
closely into all the minutest details of surrounding 
conditions before he makes the selection. If pre- 
vious choice, or accident has already placed him in 
a locality which seems reasonably favorable to the 
business, then all he can do is to make the most of 
his opportunities. 

¥: ^ ¥: 

In the foregoing, I think, I have stated all that I 
or anybody else could say on the question whether 
it is advisable or not for an inquirer (young or old) 
to take up market gardening as a business. We 
can give only general rules. In the application, 
good judgment must do the rest. 

T. GREINER. 

La Salle, N. Y., Spring, 1896. 



PART I. 



i i 



A LITTLE PIT WELL BUILT." 



GREENHOUSES AND HOT-BEDS.— CON- 
STRUCTION, HEATING 
AND USE. 




HOUSE, TOO. 



CHAPTER 1. 



BEGINNER'S GREENHOUSES. 



\VT ITHOUT an opportunity to grow vegetables and 

plants under glass when the ground is deeply 

frozen or covered foot-deep with snow, one necessary 

feature of home gardening is missing. A greenhouse, 

be it ever so small, is needed to com- 
^^ Need^^^^ plete the model rural home. Its absence, 

however, only shows that the owner 
neglects to utilize, to the fullest extent, all the priv- 
ileges which the rural home affords. It means less 
comfort, less pleasure, but no loss of a more serious 
character. For the market gardener, on the other 
hand, the possession of a greenhouse or forcing pit 
is absolutely indispensable. The measure of success 
in market gardening depends chiefly on being one 
of the " early birds." Competition is often close. 
Vegetables grown entirely in open air, and at their 
regular season, when everybody has them, are cheap. 
The profits are mostly in green stuff and fruits pro- 
duced early, even if only a few days in advance of 
the rush. In this respect, the gardener who works 
only with hot-beds and cold-frames cannot compete 



16 LOCATION OF GREENHOUSE. 

with those who have the advantage of greenhouse 
facilities. Without the efficient aid of the latter, 
the former can only give half returns and a half 
success at best. In short, the greenhouse is the first 
of all equipments which^the market gardener needs. 
With him this is a question of success or failure. 
It is for this reason that I have included the cost of 
a greenhouse in my estimate of capital required for 
a start. 

The location of the greenhouse is of some import- 
ance. It should be in convenient proximity to the 
dwelling house. Under some circum- 
stances it might be built as a south or 
east wing or lean-to. If you have a spot protected 
at the north and west by trees, tall hedges, buildings, 
or a board fence, such a location, in short, as one 
would select for hot-beds and cold-frames, that also 
is the proper site for the greenhouse. Some protec- 
tion of this kind makes a material difference. Here 
the west side of a double-span greenhouse fully ex- 
posed to the cold winds, is several degrees colder 
than the east side. 

The next thing to consider is the size of the house 
or pit. It is true that a large house can be heated 
more economically than a smaller one; but 
my advice is always to go slow. The young 
market gardener, who has neither a sufficiency of ex- 
perience in managing a greenhouse, nor a surplus of 
capital, can get along very well with quite a small 
greenhouse. It is better and safer than to begin 
with a larger and more costly one. The chief aim is 
the production of the early plants with which to 
plant the place, and some surplus to sell. A great 



CHEAP PLANT HOUSES. 



IT 



deal can be done in this line in a small greenhouse, 
and with the aid of a number of cold-frames. Some- 
times a lot of sashes are on hand, or can be pur- 
chased second-hand at an almost nominal sum. 
You will need a score or more for cold-frames, but 
if there are more of them than required for that pur- 
pose, they might be used in the construction of a 
cheap pit, something like the one here illustrated. 
Put up a simple frame, three-quarter span, and 




-> "^ ■> 6 7 a 9 10 ~ Ts- 

MAKE-SHIFT FORCING PITS. 



A Make-Shift. 



board up at the ends and back. These walls, of 
course, should be double, and filled 
with sawdust, as will be described in 
detail later on. Three rows of ordinary hot-bed 
sashes, some of them hinged to serve as ventilators, 
form the roof. An ordinary greenhouse bench is set 
up against the back wall, close to the glass. The 
other two benches are solid earth beds, the lower one 
on the ground level. A pit may be dug for a fire 
place, and the flue placed under the upper bench. 
If there is a return flue, placed right on top of the 



18 CHEAP PLANT HOUSES. 

lower one, and the chimney immediately above the 
fire-place, the draught will be excellent. Among 
the advantages of this plan of putting up a green- 
house are, first, cheapness. The few boards and 
scantlings needed for the frame can be found lying 
about on almost any place, or bought for little 
money. Anybody of ordinary intelligence and 
mechanical skill can put up the frame. Then, the 
flue being on one side, gives a chance to raise all the 
different vegetable plants. The high bed furthest 
back, over the flue, will be the warmest. Here you 
can start tomato, i)epper and egg-plants, etc, or use 
it for forcing cucumbers, tomatoes, etc. The next 
bed, in the centre, which is somewhat cooler, maybe 
used for tomato, pepper, early cabbage and similar 
plants after they are well started, also for forcing 
lettuce, radishes, etc. The bed on the ground level 
is the coolest and just right for growing onion plants. 
If you are not afraid to invest an extra $100 or so, 
however, better put in a hot- water heater, with the 
necessary pipes. The house will be managed with 
one-half the labor, and double the satisfaction to 
the owner. 

The house or pit just described, however, is a 
make-shift at best. I believe that what is worth 
doing at all, is worth doing well. When anyone 
engages in market gardening as a permanent business 
— and it is not worth while to engage in it for a year 
or two — he might just as well put up a building for 
permanent ^service, and one which will give the 
advantages of greatest efiiciency, greatest conven- 
ience and greatest satisfaction generally. Then, as 
the increasing business demands increased green- 



SMALL GEEENHOUSE. 



19 



liouse facilities, additions can be made from time to 
time as needed. 

My little greenhouse, shown here in perspective 
(engraved from photo), was intended solely for 
amateur purposes, and in this respect I consider 




SMALL GREENHOUSE. 



it nearly perfect. But I find it fully large enough 
for a modest start in market gardening and if a 
somewhat larger house should be preferred, a few feet 
might be easily added to its length, at little addi- 
tional cost. The building is heated by means of 
one of Hitchings & Co.'s base-burning water heaters, 
and four lines of two-inch gas pipe, requiring a 
moderate amount of coal, and but little attention. 
The whole building, heating apparatus and all, was 
put up at a cost of about $250, and a little of my 
own work and supervision. 



CHAPTER II. 



DETAILS OF GREENHOUSE CONSTRUCTION. 



HP HE building, as was shown in illustration in 
preceding chapter, is a double span, each span 
being ten feet wide and sixteen feet long. The 
wood- work, posts and boards excepted, consists of 
southern cypress, and was purchased, ready for 
putting together, from one of the firm' s advertising 
such lumber in the columns of horticultural journals. 
The first task was the selection of the proper site — 
one with good southeastern exposure and some pro- 
tection at the north and west, and affording a good 
chance of drainage for the furnace pit. Set per- 
manent posts reaching below the frost line, and 
attach the structure to these. Then we want warm 
walls. Fuel in most parts of the country is expen- 
sive. It is much cheaper to take pains in the con- 
struction of greenhouse walls, so that no heat can 
escape through them. They ought to be built of 



GREENHOUSE WALLS. 21 

hollow brick, or of two tiers of brick with a dead- 
air space between. This is all right, but I have used 
double board walls and sawdust filling, as illus- 
trated. Matched boards (hemlock or other cheap 
lumber) are nailed on outside of posts. Then comes 
a layer of building paper which is one of the poorest 
conductors of heat, and upon this the clapboards. 
After the frame is all up, the walls are finished by 
boarding up on the inside of posts, from the bottom 
up. A strip of building paper comes first, then 
boards. As the side is gradually closed up, the 
hollow spaces in the centre of the wall are filled with 
dry sawdust tightly packed down. If everything 
is done properly there cannot be much waste of heat 
through these walls, as they consist of three thick- 
nesses of board, two thicknesses of building paper 
and a four-inch layer of dry sawdust. Be sure to 
have everything snug and tight. The saving in coal 
will abundantly repay a little extra pains taken 
with the walls as well as with other 
parts of the house. 

I make the w^alls as high as the 
top of benches. The side posts ex- 
tend eighteen inches above the plates 
(or wall caps) and support the side 
gutters (^see cut, post not shown). 
This eighteen-inch space, all along 
the sides of the building, is closed in by means of 
hinged sashes. 

The gable ends, except the one at the northeast 
end which joins the furnace room, and is boarded 
up, are constructed as shown in cut. The vertical 
bars (If by If inches) rest upon the gable plate, and 





22 DETAILS OF CONSTKUCTION. 

extend to the end rafter, placed at proper distance 
for taking 14-inch glass. The large door with sash 
top is in the center of the southwest 
gable end, facing the dwelling house. 
If the latter were on the other (north) 
side of greenhouse, I would have the 
door in the northwest gable end, which 
arrangement I would like better. The 
middle gutter is shown in next figure. 
The posts set at equal distances from 
each other and from the outside posts, 
inside of the building, support it, and keep it from 
sagging in the center. This gutter, as well as the 
side gutters, and with 
them the whole struct- 
ure, must have a slight 
deviation from the hori- 
zontal line, in order to 
give rain and snow-water 
a chance to run off one 
way or the other, prefer- 
ably towards the south. 

The most important part of building is the roof. 
This should admit plenty of light and yet retain the 
heat well. We might cover the greenhouse with 
sashes like those used for hot beds and cold frames; 
but they are clumsy, with big frames, and conse- 
quently they obstruct the light more than perman- 
ent sash bars. I greatly prefer the latter. The roof 
bars on my greenhouse are of the pattern here shown, 
and they are placed far enough apart to accommo- 
date 14-inch glass, same as at the gable ends. Large 
sized glass gives the best light, of course. Each 




GLASSING THE GREENHOUSE. 



23 



span has two ventilators, 14 x 16 inches, hinged to 
ridge plate (see illustration), and these, as well as 
side sashes, are worked by iron lifting rods of simple 
construction. 

I prefer glass of double thickness, the regular 
greenhouse glass. As it is not to be lapped but 
"butted," that is, simply placed 
together edge to edge, great care 
must be exercised to have the panes 
fit well together, in order to leave no openings. It 
will pay to take a good deal of pains to do this job 



Olassing 
the Greenhouse. 





well. Some people advise to put a film of white 
lead between the two edges, in order to make a close, 
tight joint. I do not find this to be necessary. The 
glass is supposed to be cut square and straight. Yet 
there are always slight variations to be found, and 
if one pane does not fit well to one already put in 
place, another should be tried, and if this does not 
give a perfect fit, still another. When the glass is 
once laid in this careful manner, you have a roof 
that is as perfect as any glass roof can be made. 
There is no drip worth mentioning. There are no 



24 GLASSIlSiG THE GREENHOUSE. 

tins, no lapped glass, to obstruct the passage of the 
light, and moreover the glass lays smoothly and 
evenly on the projection of the sash bar, and is held 
down firmly by the cap. Then we avoid the putty- 
ing nuisance. We do use a little soft putty in 
which to bed the glass, but none on top of the glass. 
The liquid putty bulb (catalogued by seedsmen) is a 
handy thing for applying putty in this manner. 
The way to make the putty is as follows: 
^ ^' Use one- third in bulk each of common 
putty, boiled oil and white lead. Stir the patty 
into the oil, then add the lead. Mix all thoroughly 
together and then strain. Then fill the bulb full of 
the mixture and use it as you would an oil can. 
Pour just a thin line of this soft putty along the 
sash bars on each side, and bed the glass in it, and 
then screw on the cap. 

The only place of weakness is where the glass 
joins the ridge plate. Here we may find openings 
and leaks. I prefer to use ordinary putty, from the 
outside, and closing the groove above the glass. I. 
am very much in love with butting the glass and 
greatly prefer it to lapping or any other style. If 
there are slight cracks left, they will do little harm. 
In fact they act as automatic ventilators. They are 
open when the weather is mild. Frost closes them 
tightly in cold weather. Proper attention must be 
paid to ventilators, so that they fit snugly and 
tightly. If they do not, they may allow much heat 
to escape in cold weather. When I noticed consid- 
erable leak through the ventilators late last fall, I 
fitted in felt weather strips and stopped the leaks. 
The house has been much warmer since. In short, 



GLASSING GABLE ENDS. 25 

every effort must be made to retain as mucli as pos- 
sible of the heat during the cold weather. Heat 
represents coal, and coal money. 

The same pains of fitting in the glass as recom- 
mended for the roof must be taken with the gable 
ends. Again I butt, 
Glassing the ^^t lap the panes. ^^^^-\ 

The cut represents a [ "^ 



i 



section of the vertical gable bar, [ A 

glassed and finished. I dislike to 
use putty on the outside, and 



'illMMIk 



have used corner moulding as 
shown. I am unable to see, how- 
ever, why the parties who get out cypress lumber 
for greenhouses do not fit the 
, gable bars with caps, giving us 

=^~^-, ~rz an arran2:ement as here illus- 

f/[ , trated and somewhat like the 

roof bars. I asked the Lockland 
Lumber Co. why they did not, 
and they replied there was no 
reason for the omission, and 
that the idea was a good one. 

Where the winters are expected to bring occa- 
sionally quite cold weather, as here and further 
North, it may be well to take extra precautions to 
exclude the cold, or rather to confine the warmth in 
the building. I have put double panes in the side 
sashes and also in the gables (doors included) of 
the west span. It is easy enough to ^^ the gable 
ends in this way. I have fitted in the panes against 
the inside of bar, as shown, and fastened them by 
means of a strip of wood to correspond with the 



26 



GLASING GABLE ENDS. 




width of gable bar in length, and being one- quarter 
inch in thickness. A few screws hold this and the 
panes firmly. But when I 
put up another greenhouse, 
I shall have the gable bars 
made as here illustrated, 
namely, fitted for regular caps 
on the inside as well as on the outside. This double 
glass protection works well. It has made my green- 
house perceptibly warmer, and this at a small ex- 
pense for extra glass. I 
cannot emphasize the im- 
portance of this one feature 
too strongly. Every open- 
ing, every leak, gives a 
chance for the heat to es- 
cape, and in a very cold 
spell may endanger the 
plants. The tighter and the 

better secured all the sides and the roof, the less 
coal will be needed, and the more cheaply and 
safely the greenhouse can be run. 




CHAPTER 



HEATING THE GREENHOUSE. 



r>EFOE,E the benches can be put in, the hot water 
^ pipes must be properly arranged. The first 
question comes, what sized pipes to use and how 
many feet of them. You can use either 4-inch cast 
iron pipes or ordinary 2-inch gas pipe. I prefer the 
latter, as they are more easily handled and fitted. 

My greenhouse has about 160 running 
the GrJeSfouse. ^^^^ of this 2-inch pipe, or a little less 

than one foot to each three square feet 
of glass surface. This seems to answer every purpose 
when it is intended to grow only hardy vegetables 
during the winter. But as we may wish to start 
plants requiring more heat, and in order to be on 
the safe side anyway, it would be preferable to put 
in at least 200 feet of 2-inch pipe, or one foot to 
every two and a half of glass surface. We might 
easily arrange it so that there would be some extra 
piping in the east span, in order to make this a little 
warmer, and thus fit it for plants of a more tender 
nature. I use a base-burning water heater (made 
by Hitchings & Co., of New York; price about $45). 



28 



THE WATER HEATER. 



Boilers of larger size, of course, will be required for 
larger buildings. This base-burning heater is econ- 
omical in the use of coal, and requires but little at- 
tention. In fact, it almost "runs itself." 

The hot-water heater is set into a pit north of the 
east span, deep enough so that the pipes where they 
enter the greenhouse are level with the ground. 
The chimney may be close to the heater, and must 
extend somewhat beyond the ridges of the house in 
order to secure good draft. Every precaution should 
be taken to avoid risk of taking fire. There is a 
brick foundation and sewer pipe for the upper part 
of chimney. Of course you can lit this to suit cir- 
cumstances. Only be sure to have good draft, and 
security from catching fire. One end of the pit is 
partitioned off for a coal bin. The accompanying 




CROSS SECTIOIN^ OF GREENHOUSE. 



illustrations will give an idea of the arrangement of 
the pipes, which are all 2-inch gas pipe. The two 
outer pipes are all flow pipes, connecting with the 
upper opening of the boiler; the inner pipes are the 
returns, connecting with the lower opening. There 
is a gradual rise from the boiler upwards, the portion 
connecting with the tank at the northwest corner of 



PIPING AND HEATING. 



29 



the building being the highest. The tank rises 
above the bench. It is not necessary to have a 
metal tank, with the water guage, etc., as mine hap- 
pens to be. A keg, open on top, and with IJ-inch 
pipe connecting with water circulation, entering 
from bottom of keg or from side near the bottom, 
will answer the purpose just as well. A cover is 




■/B'adi'sh'e&y/ 






PATH 'f^/^';V'<>'<- 
'lOnions''^ 






I FuBfwce 1 

I Q 



': t 



m^ 



^^^^ 



TTTtl 



GEOUND PLAN OF GREENHOUSE. 



easily fitted to the keg, and a glance inside, when 
this cover is lifted up, will show whether water is 
needed or not I have to add a bucketful or less a 
week, that is all. 

People who have no idea of the arrangement of 
pipes and how to get them together may need the 



30 PLUMBING AND BENCHES. 

services of a regular plumber. I always do this 
work myself; indeed, I enjoy it. If you draw a 
plan on the one inch-to-tlie-foot scale, like an en- 
largement of ground plan liere shown, you (or the 
party who is to furnish you the piping), can get the 
correct length of every piece of pipe; and when you 
have that, it is easy to put the whole thing together. 
The chances are, however, that you will have to go 
back to the hardware, for fixings or cuttings of pipe, 
more than once. No need of using lead in the 
joints. The whole system, when well screwed 
together, will be perfectly water-tight. 

In the first section of pipe nearest the furnace (at 
right of illustration) the pipes are near the ground, 
and when we build the bench over them, we make 
this a double one, as shown in cross section. The 
lower bench can be quite shallow, but should be 
water-tight, and a portion of it can then be used as 
"water bench'' for watering (from the bottom up) 
the flats with transplanted seedlings or the newly- 
seeded flats. Another portion may be used for 
water cresses, or even ordinary cresses, etc. In con- 
sequence of the necessary gradual rise, the pipes 
where they pass the main door in front are some- 
what in the way, and I had to build a bridge or step 
over them. This is not a serious defect, however, 
and would have been avoided in a house located on 
the other side of residence, by having the main door 
in opposite end. This arrangement of the pipes 
gives good satisfaction, and it is simple. I am not 
sure, however, that it is the best that could be de- 
vised. I like as much space as possible, both on and 
under the benches. The pipes, especially at south 



OTHER HOUSES. 31 

side of house, take up considerable of the under- 
bench space. The space under the benches could all 
have been saved for planting with rhubarb, aspara- 
gus, cresses, mushrooms, bunching onions, etc., if 
the pipes were placed alongside the inner walls, one 
above the other. The water is filled into the tank 
until well up to the top, and kept there. The grad- 
ual rise allows all the air in the pipes to escape 
through the tank. Then fire up and keep the fire 
going, which is an easy enough thing, especially 
after one gets thoroughly acquainted with the 
heater. In the regulation of the furnace and work- 
ing the drafts, according to the conditions of the 
weather, as also in the use of the ventilators, you 
will have to follow the dictates of common sense. 

It cannot be my purpose or task to give plans of 
elaborate houses. People who wish to build large, 
expensive or ornamental greenhouses, should study 
Prof Taft's book on greenhouse con- 
other Houses, g^^^^^i^j^ (pj.ice, $1.50), or visit some 

of the establishments of florists or seedsmen, for the 
inspection of their houses, or still better, employ a 
professional greenhouse builder. Sometimes it be- 
comes necessary to put up a greenhouse for only 
temporary use. Then it might do to make the roof 
of portable sashes, and board up the sides clear to 
the gutters. But by using screws and bolts in place 
of nails, the whole roof can be taken down and re- 
erected elsewhere, even if made of "permanent" 
sash bars. It is not absolutely necessary to have 
the more expensive cypress sash bars with drip 
grooves. I find no necessity for such grooves in my 
greenhouse. Some water is condensed on the inside 



32 SIDE-HILL HOUSES. 

of the glass, and rans down to the gutters, where it 
is caught in miniature gutters and collected. But I 
have never seen any water running down in the drip 
grooves. These permanent sash bars might be just 
as well made of clear pine, and plain square in shape, 
instead of the dearer, although more lasting cypress. 
I would prefer the regular grooved caps. 

Hillsides with a southern slope of about 25 degrees, 
offer superior advantages to the grower of forced 
vegetables. A lean-to, or sections of lean-to, can 
here be easily and cheaply erected. A good width 
of each lean-to is from ten to twelve 
feet. The walls can be built the same 
as for any greenhouse, although possibly there may 
be no necessity of making them double and with 
sawdust filling or dead-air spaces, since they are to 
be banked up clear to the gutters. Of course there 
is a gutter on posts between each two sections, the 
top of the ridge being connected with the gutter 
north of it by board or glass ventilators. 

Walks are dug out right in center of each house, so 
that there is a bed directly on the ground, from four 
to five feet in width at each side of walk. The sash 
bars are to be laid at the same angle as the slope of 
the hill. The-heating pipes are arranged along the 
sides of the walks, and should be distributed so that 
the lower hous»^s will have their full share of the 
heat, unless these are intended for growing hardier 
plants than are grown in the uj>per house or houses. 
The heat, of course, rises to the top. If pipes are 
distributed evenly over the whole, plants needing 
more heat, such as tomatoes, peppers, egg plants, 
etc., may be grown in the upper house or houses, 



SIDE-HILL HOUSES. 33 

while the lower ones are devoted to onions, lettuce, 
cabbage, cauliflower, etc. Such a hillside, indeed, 
is a bonanza for the young market gardener, if 
properly utilized, both in forcing vegetables and in 
their open-air production. A lean-to house of the 
kind described, can be put up with less expense 
than any other greenhouse, and will require less 
fuel to keep it properly heated. Then there is no 
need of making benches, and the bench supports 
never rot away. The face of the hill gives the bench 
and bed. Sidehill houses of this description have 
been found satisfactory whenever used, and they 
have been used to some extent here, and quite com- 
monly in Europe. The young beginner, with little 
means for a start, but fortunate enough to have 
such a hillside close to his dwelling, can do far 
worse, in putting up a structure for growing plants 
and forcing vegetables, than build a side-hill house 
of this kind. 



CHAPTER IV, 



USE OF THE GREENHOUSE. 



'T^HE chief purpose for whicli the young market 
gardener builds and maintains his greenhouse, 
and his cold frames as well, is for raising the plants 
that he may need for his own setting, and enough 
to supply the demand he may have for them at re- 
tail rates. Plants at ordinary retail prices usually 
pay much better than crops for the table. The 
chief energies of the gardener must be spent in the 
task of growing good and early plants for own use. 
The money is in the earliest crops. The cabbages 
that can be brought into the market a few days in 
advance of other people's crops, the tomatoes and 
egg plants and onions, etc., that are put on sale 
before the rush, are the ones that bring good prices 



POTTING SOIL. 35 

and pay well. Later on, when the markets are 
flooded with all these ve^^etables, it is often uphill 
work to secure a paying price for cabbages, tomatoes, 
onions, etc. The production of such late crops 
should in many instances be left to the farm gard- 
ener, who plants large areas, raises ordinary crops 
cheaply, and expects to meet competition by cheap 
prices. 

Forcing vegetables, unless it is intended to be 
made a specialty, is (mly an incident, and the young 
market gardener's greenhouse is used for the pro- 
duction of forced lettuces, radishes, etc., only during 
fall or early winter, or previous to the time when 
every space is needed for plant growing, and for the 
production of forced tomatoes, cucumbers, etc , only 
during spring, after the plants have been taken out 
to frames or open ground. Bat if properly run, the 
house should stand empty only for a very short 
time during the hottest part of the season. 

A most important point is the timely preparation 
of the soil needed for the benches, the flats, hot beds 
and cold frames. This can hardly be prepared too 
far in advance. It is none too early 
PottinVsoii. ^^ S^* *^^ materials together in the 
spring, and too late if put off until 
after early summer. Two kinds of soil are needed; 
one for plant growing and another for forcing vege- 
tables. For the production of succulent vegetables, 
especially lettuce and radishes, the soil must be 
very rich in order to give us quick growth and sweet, 
tender leaves or roots. About as good a mixture as 
I ever found for this purpose consists of one part 
each (more or less) of old horse or cow manure, 



36 POTTIT^G SOIL. 

dried nauck, sand and old sods. Be sure to prepare 
enough of this, for usually quite a quantity is 
needed. For a small greenhouse, such as I have 
described, and for the cold frames connected with 
it, a good, plump load of each of the four ingredients 
may answer. Throw all these materials into a square 
heap, say three feet high, and fork or spade them 
over thoroughly at least once a month. If the mix- 
ture can be kept under shelter, all the better. If 
very dry, soap suds from the wash-house, or liquid 
manure, may be thrown upon it from time to time. 
In October, when wanted for the benches, the com- 
post should be one homoo^eneous mass. Sift it 
through a coarse sieve and use the sifted part for 
the benches. 

This, or a similar compost, however, excellent as 
we always find it for the purpose named, will not 
answer to grow plants in. It is by far too rich, and 
therefore not safe to use, when we want strong, stiff, 
but short and stocky plants. Excessively rich soil 
gives us the sappy, succulent growth which we so 
much admire in lettuce or radishes, and find so un- 
desirable in plants grown for setting in open ground. 
The soil for the latter should be a fibrous loam of 
medium fertility, and there can be nothing superior 
to a compost of clear sods taken from an old pasture 
or from an old fence row. The soil there is just 
about rich enough for our purposes, and the grass 
roots furnish the fibres which bind the soil together, 
and help it to adhere firmly to the roots of plants to 
be taken up and re-set " with a chunk of soil." Of 
course, it takes considerable time for freshly cut 
sods to rot down and make good plant soil. We 



POTTING SOIL. 37 

will have use for a good deal of it, too, in flats, pots, 
frames, etc. Cut the sods a year ahead, if possible, 
or not later than spring, for next winter' s use. Pile 
them up in a* square heap in any convenient spot, 
and leave them to rot. If very dry, you may pour 
water or slops upon the heap from time to time. A 
few months later, dig the heap over with the spade 
or fork, chopping the sods to pieces as best as you 
can. Make a new heap, and again leave for a few 
weeks, when it should be dug over once more. Keep 
at it until you have a nice mellow loam, which you 
will find is just the thing you want to raise plants 
in. If it is somewhat poor, you may add a small 
quantity of old, fine compost, but in most cases this 
will not be necessary, and perhaps be a detriment 
rather than an advantage. 

Be sure to attend to this matter in time. Right 
here is where many novices fail. We are all quite 
liable to put such odd jobs off from day to day. 
Then come regret, and frantic efforts to find a sub- 
stitute for what we might have secured so easily in 
its proper time. Possibly the ground has become 
thoroughly soaked with fall rains, or frozen up solid, 
when we want to use the soil, and we will have to 
hunt in cellars, and under barns and sheds, etc., for 
some kind of soil that will not give us half the good 
results, half the satisfaction, half the profits, that 
we would have obtained by the use of properly pre- 
pared compost. 

This we must bear in mind, that competition has 
become very close, and often formidable. City 
markets are now almost as well provided with fresh 
vegetables (from the South) during the winter, as 



38 FORCING LETTUCE. 

they are with home grown products during the 
summer. This abundance of south- 
row ing rops. ^^^ green stuff effectively bars out 
every chance of a generally high schedule of prices. 
Only very choice vegetables, now-a-days, will bring 
a fancy figure. The average run has to be sold at 
moderate prices at best, except in special retail 
market. But the young market gardener, who has 
the opportunity of selling directly to the consumers 
who appreciate nice, crisp forced vegetables, can 
certainly find profit in their production, at the rates 
consumers are usually willing to pay for their small 
quantities, especially if he has learned to crowd 
crops. This is a principle applicable both to culture 
in open air and under glass. 

Lettuce is the first crop to be produced. We 

begin to raise our plants in August and September, 

and to set them on the greenhouse bench in October. 

The plants may be started in some 

orcmg e uce. g^j^^j^jg gp^^ outdoors, where they 

are given space enough so that they can be taken 
up with some soil adhering to their roots, and thus 
carefully transferred to the greenhouse. They should 
not resent this transfer, but rather grow right along 
and produce marketable heads by Thanksgiving 
(last week in November). The first crop, owing to 
much clear and warm weather, usually grows rap- 
idly, and will need a good deal of water and careful 
ventilation. Sub-irrigation will show its full ad- 
vantages here. One way of getting the water to the 
roots of plants without wetting the tops and much 
of the surface, is illustrated in the accompanying 
diagram. The number of pots and location between 



WATERING LETTUCE. 



39 



the plants is shown at Fig. 1. With plants standing 
seven or eight inches apart each way, and a pot 
sunk into the ground in the center between each 
four plants, a few dozen pots will go a great way. 
Pots four inches across the top are just about right 
for the purpose, although there is nothing arbitrary 
about the size. Fig. 2 represents a cross section of 
bench. The liquid, whether it be clear water, wash- 
ing suds or weak manure water, is simply turned 
into the pots and the applications are repeated until 



^m^^' 
^•t^ 




'^m^ 
&**=i> 












•$2 ?2 


Fig 


1 






LETTUCE BED ARRANGED FOR SUB-IRRIGATION. 



the liquid ceases to soak away rapidly, or until or- 
dinary good judgment tells us that there is enough. 
In clear weather and loose soil, lettuce will stand 
and delight in a great deal of moisture. Our aim, 
of course, is to force the crop along as rapidly as 
possible, and thus to produce a brittle, succulent 
growth and fine heads, which will delight the con- 
sumer and make him ask for more. Little is to be 
said about cultivation, simply because little can be 



40 VARIETIES OF FOECIKG LETTUCE. 

done. A little stirring of the soil about the plants, 
with the finger or some suitable tool, during the 
first two weeks after the plants are set out, is about 
all that is required, for the plants soon occupy the 
whole ground, and if proper attention is paid to 
watering and ventilation, our duty is done. 

What is the best variety for forcing purposes? 
This question I am unable to answer definitely. 
The variety you want is the one which your con- 
sumers or your available markets want. Grand 
Kapids is popular and almost the only variety 
grown in some localities. It makes a strong plant 
and a great mass of beautifully curled leaves, just 
right for garnishing. It is just the variety for the 
hotel trade. A few leaves spread around the edges 
of meat plates and partially under the meat, give 
the dish a most appetizing appearance. The plant 
has a remarkably healthy and upright growth, and 
is less subject to mildews and rots than the close- 
heading sorts. 

Grocers and other retailers usually prefer head 
lettuces. The variety almost universally grown for 
this trade, and a good one, too, is Boston Market or 
some other good strain of the Tennis Ball. It is of 
good size and makes fairly good heads. The newer 
Big Boston is much larger, but takes a longer time 
to come to maturity, and always has a somewhat 
coarse appearance. 

Among all the varieties now listed, I know of 
none better than Buist's Perfection White Forcing 
or Landreth's Hot House lettuce. There are more 
thrifty growers among lettuces, but I have seen none 
that head up more promptly, are more attractive in 



CROWDING CKOPS. 41 

appearance, or more brittle and tender. The grower 
will have to study the seed catalogues and the col- 
umns of horticultural papers, etc., and, while grow- 
ing the once-tested and known-to-be-good varieties 
for main crop, try also the new ones that come well 
recommended and endorsed, on a small scale at first. 

Under fairly favorable conditions a crop of lettuce 
can be grown under glass in from five to six weeks' 
time. We always try to hurry up the crop and get 
it into market as soon as possible in order to start 
a new crop. In mostly clear weather I can produce 
good heads in four weeks, provided I have the plants 
to do it with. Usually I prick out plants from the 
seed-box or seed-fiat into fiats, about two inches 
apart each way, and cut them out with nice chunks 
of soil, and set them into the bench at the proper 
time. One can transplant quite large plants in this 
way, and thus produce a crop in the minimum of 
time. 

In order to make the most of our opportunities, 
we must crop closely — i. e.^ raise crop after crop in 
rapid succession. I always aim to have a supply of 
large plants, in fiats or otherwise, ready to go out 
on the bench just as soon as a spot is cleared from 
a preceding crop. If I take out a few dozen lettuce 
in the morning, the space will be occupied by 
another lot of thrifty plants before night, and in 
four or five weeks another crop will be ready. No 
use letting the beds be idle for a day. 

Another plan which I find useful is here illus- 
trated. Sometimes, when the bed is not irrigated 
by means of fiower pots, as before described, and 
large plants are not at hand, I set ordinary plants 




42 CROWDING CROPS. 

just half the usual distance apart, namely, 3J or 4 
inches each way, instead of 7 or 8 inches. In a 
week or ten days afterwards, I can take up every 
other plant in the rows, alternately, the dotted circle 
in illustration indicating the plants to be removed. 

If carefully taken up with a trowel, these plants can 
be re-set into a bench just cleared from a crop, in 
same way as I advised to set the large plants from 
flats. The plants remaining now appear as shown 
in center of diagram. Here they have room enough 
to grow for another week, and every alternate row 
may then be taken up and also transplanted, or 
allowed to stand until the plants crowd closely, and 
then cut out for use or sale, leaving the remaining 
ones at proper distance for full development, as 
shown at the right of diagram. 

While the greenhouse is furnishing a continuous 
supply, and portion after portion of the benches ma- 
ture their successive crops, we must always aim to 
have an especially liberal amount at such times as 
Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year, Washington's 
birthday, Easter, and for other special occasions. 
By the time that any considerable part of the green- 
house space will be needed for raising tomato and 
similar plants, four crops of lettuce (or radishes) 
can be grown and disposed of. Let us see what is the 



LETTUCE ENEMIES. 43 

value of one crop that can be grown in a house as 
small as mine (20 x 16). I have about 225 square 
feet of bench space. This will accommodate about 
880 plants, set 7x7 inches. Allowing a fair per- 
centage for culls, we will have 60 dozen of marketa- 
ble heads, worth usually 50 cents a dozen, or $30 for 
the whole crop. The three or four successive winter 
crops should bring us not less than $100, which 
seems pretty good pay ' for the little labor and ex- 
pense of raising them at a time when no other work 
is calling for your time and attention. 

Lettuce, like other crops, has its enemies, and 

sometimes extra efforts are necessary to save it from 

injury or ruin. Among insects, the green fly is the 

most troublesome to the lettuce 

Lettuce Enemies. ., , , . -,■, 

growers, as it seems to be especially 
partial to the lettuce plant. Fumigation with 
tobacco will keep it in check. A pound of tobacco 
stems, or half that quantity of tobacco dust, thrown 
on a shovelful of live coals in a kettle, will fill a 
house like mine, when tightly closed, with a dense 
cloud of smoke and kill most of the insects in it. 
This should be repeated about once a week, and the 
treatment, if persisted in, will soon rid the house 
entirely of the pest. The same object may be ac- 
complished by keeping gutters filled with strong 
tobacco tea on the heating pipes. Such gutters are 
kept in stock by dealers in florist' s supplies, or they 
may be made to order by the nearest tinsmith. I 
can get rid of green fly in the simplest manner by 
sprinkling tobacco dust freely on plants and soil. 
Its use on the plants must be dispensed with, how- 
ever, when the plants are nearing market size, and 



44 LETTUCE ENEMIES. 

mulching around them with tobacco dust or broken 
stems can be depended upon to keep the insects in 
check until^the crop is taken off. 

Snails sometimes become troublesome on lettuce 
under glass. Spraying with lime or salt water, or 
with a weak solution of muriate of potash, after 
dusk, or mulching lightly with wood ashes, will 
speedily end their earthly career. More serious 
than these insect enemies, however, are various 
kinds of lettuce diseases. Foremost among them, 
and usually most destructive, is the lettuce mildew, 
a delicate mildew, attacking the leaves and causing 
yellow or brown spots, and finally killing the leaf. 
Keeping the temperature low, say 35 to 40 degrees 
Fahrenheit at night, and 50 to 70 degrees during 
the day, and the foliage and soil surface entirely 
dry, applying water freely but through underground 
pipes or sunken flower pots only, are the easiest and 
simplest means of keeping this disease off. If water 
has to be applied from overhead, it should be done 
in the morning and on bright days only. If the 
disease is found on plants, it should be promptly 
fought by means of sulphur fumes. Put a deep 
iron kettle containing a quantity of brimstone, on a 
little oil stove in the closed greenhouse, and let the 
sulphur boil until there is a perceptible sulphur 
smell in the house. Be sure that the flame will not 
come in contact with the sulphur and set it on fire. 
The kettle should be deep, so that the sulphur can- 
not run over, for if the sulphur should become ig- 
nited, the plants will be killed. 

There is more or less decay of the lower leaves by 
wet rot in plants watered from overhead, or by simple 



FORCING EADISHES. 45 

withering and drying up, which is less noticeable 
on sub-irrigated ones. Sometimes a kind of black 
rot attacks the hearts. Sub-irrigation will be most 
likely to prevent the trouble. Affected plants might 
be sprayed with a solution of permanganate of pot- 
ash, or possibly a very weak one of sulphate of 
copper (one ounce to seven gallons of water.) A 
still better way is to remove and destroy the affected 
plant and set another healthy one in its place. The 
four lettuce crops, and perhaps successive crops of 
cucumbers, etc., can be grown without changing the 
soil, or without adding fertilizing materials of any 
kind except what is given in washing suds or other 
liquid applications. Give the surface a good work- 
ing over, by hand or with a trowel or other imple- 
ment, and the bed will be ready for setting out 
another lot of plants. 

Lettuce is the great and chief crop, easily grown, 
easily sold and always profitable. But it is always 
well to have a variety. A certain proportion of 

radishes may be mixed in; they 
Winter-crops. of^^n come handy and find a good 

sale at remunerative prices. True 
to our motto of close cropping we may sow seeds in 
flats rather thickly and then prick the seedlings out 
on the benches in rows three inches apart and plants 
one-half inch apart in the rows. Or we may sow 
seed directly into the benches in rows three inches 
apart. Of course we must select some quick-grow- 
ing variety. The turnip -rooted sorts are almost ex- 
clusively grown for this purpose. Many growers 
and markets prefer French Breakfast to all others. 
I like the Earliest Forcing, Rosy Gem, Rapid Fore- 



6 FORCING VEGETABLES. 

ing, Fireball, or by whatever name you may get 
these round radishes of quick growth. The long- 
rooted ones require longer time, but must be grown 
in case the market demands them. Then use Long 
Scarlet or Wood' s Early Frame. Of course for long 
radishes there should be a good depth of bench soil. 
Keep the soil well supplied with jnoisture and stir 
the surface frequently with the linger or a long- 
handled iron spoon or similar tool. When the rad- 
ishes are of proper size they should be pulled and 
bunched, say six to eight in a bunch. They ought 
to bring not less than five cents for two bunches at 
any time. You will need a little corner of parsley 
for soup greens and garnishing. These bunches of 
greens are always in demand. If you have some 
small plants in the fall, set them out on a deep bench 
or under the bench, say three inches apart each way, 
and give them plenty of moisture. Cut the tops 
freely as needed. It may be well to start some 
plants from seed in mid-summer for this very pur- 
pose. Cresses will also come handy to go with the 
lettuce. The ordinary pepper-grass is of quick 
growth and must be sown repeatedly. Any vacant 
spot under the benches will do well enough for this 
crop. Water cresses might be grown in tubs or a 
water-tight bench or tank, but are not produced so 
surely and easily as the other. 

I have never been able to make forced onions pay. 
The money in onions is in a big crop of big bulbs 
from transplanted Prizetaker seedlings in open field. 
Possibly we might grow the Egyptian tree or winter 
onion under the benches and make it profitable. It 
is worth the trial. Just plant large bulbs out in 



RHUBARB, ASPARAGUS, MUSHROOMS. 47 

well-prepared soil under the benches as you would 
in open ground, and pull the stalks as wanted for 
bunching. Prof. W. J. Green, of the Ohio Experi- 
ment Station, sometimes uses Barletta plants grown 
from seed in summer, and plants them out on the 
benches; they bulb up in a very short time, and 
although the bulbs are quite small, he finds they sell 
well at a time when other bunch onions are not 
found in the markets. 

Rhubarb and asparagus may also be grown under 
the benches during the latter half of winter. Of 
course, good plants are needed, and they should have 
some rest before they are started up in the green- 
house. The best way is to grow plants from seed, 
set them so as to stand at least a foot apart in rich 
soil, letting them get age and size, and then take up 
after the first frost in the fall, and heel them in a 
cool, dark place (cellar or trench) where they can be 
got at when wanted. Along in J anuary or February 
take up the roots and plant them out under the 
benches, watering freely. The stalks are bunched 
in the usual fashion, only in smaller bunches, and 
often bring a good price. 

Another crop that can be grown under the benches 
are mushrooms. The ordinary mushroom, Agaricus 
compestris, is always in demand, and always a pay- 
ing crop when you can succeed in 
Mushrooms arowiufi: it. And with empty space 

Under Benches. » ^ , ^ r j ± 

under the benches, and an average 
temperature of from 50 to 70 degrees in these places, 
I see no reason why they could not be grown. The 
time for growing this crop extends from September 
(or even August) until March and after. What you 



48 MUSHROOMS IN GREENHOUSE. 

must have is fresh horse manure, preferably from 
hard-worked, grain-fed horses. Gather it from day 
to day from the stables, shake out all the coarsest 
parts, especially dry straw and litter, and place the 
droppings and all line stuff, sweepings, etc., under 
cover. You may also mix in the droppings collected 
from your nearest blacksmith shop, and perhaps 
some spent hops, if you can get it freshly from a 
near brewery. Then mix about one barrow load of 
fresh loam taken from an old pasture, with every 
three loads of the manure, etc., and shovel the whole 
over every second or third day for two weeks. You 
will then have a homogeneous mass, without much 
smell, and ready to be made up into beds. As fast as 
the manure is collected and prepared it is placed un- 
der the benches, section after section of the space be- 
ing thus made up. Along the front I usually place 
cheap boards, 8 or 10 inches*wide. They can simply 
be set inside of the supports, or fastened to the sup- 
ports (scantlings) with screws. The manure is filled 
in behind them in layers, every layer firmly beaten 
down with a brick, a tile, or a piece of 4 x 4 timber 
a foot long. Fill the bed up clear to the top of the 
board or a little above it, except just at the front, 
and have it nearly on a level. Now watch the bed 
for a day or two. It may heat up more than is de- 
sirable. Wait until the temperature inside the 
manure (to be tested from time to time with a correct 
thermometer, a bottom heat thermometer being most 
convenient) has subsided, and is going down below 
90 degrees. Then the spawn may be inserted. Be 
sure to get brick spawn that is freshly imported. 
Much stale stuff has always been put on the market, 



MUSHROOMS IN GREENHOUSE. 49 

and failures from this cause have been plenty. 
Break each brick into about ten or twelve pieces 
and place the pieces, one in a place, into holes into 
the manure, made by hand or with a trowel, about 
three inches deep and ten to twelve inches apart 
each way. Thus the spawn will lie about an inch 
below the surface. Cover it with manure, lightly 
pressed down and level the surface. An inch of 
loose straw or hay may then be placed on top and 
the bed left to itself for a week or ten days. Then 
remove the covering and put on an inch or two of 
loam, press down lightly and again cover with the 
litter. Little else can be done except sprinkling the 
bed, should it become dry, very lightly with tepid 
water. During the bearing period, which should 
begin in not more than eight weeks, the water ap- 
plied may contain a small quantity of nitrate of 
soda, say an ounce to the gallon. The mushrooms 
have to be gathered daily. In pulling (rather twist- 
ing) the mushrooms, great care is necessary to do as 
little damage as possible to the small specimens not 
yet developed fully enough for harvest. The holes 
left where the specimens were taken out should be 
filled with a little fine loam kept in reserve for this 
very purpose. The loam adhering to the lower end 
of stem must be peeled off with a knife and the 
specimens can then be put in small baskets and 
placed on the market. When the crop begins to 
fail by exhaustion of the bed, it can be made to give 
another, though lighter yield, by covering the bed 
with an inch of fresh loam and giving more sprink- 
lings with nitrate of soda water. The watering 
should in no case be allowed to reach below the 



50 SUMMER MUSHROOMS. 

surface layer of loam and into the manure itself. 
This would be fatal to your hopes and the crop. If 
you have a spray pump, this is the best implement 
with which to apply the water. The whole inside 
of the house may be freely sprayed with water 
in order to keep the atmosphere moist and cool, 
especially during early fall and late in spring. 

The new mushroom, Agaricus subrufescens, may 
be grown both on and under the benches during the 
warmer part of the season. It is a regular "hot 
weather" mushroom, and of very robust growth, 
requiring, and being able to endure, quite liberal ap- 
plications of water, in fact enough of it to amount 
almost to a soaking of the bed. The markets, how- 
ever, do not as yet take as kindly to the new mush- 
room as they do the ordinary Agaricus compestris. 



CHAPTER V. 



PLANTS FOR SPUING SETTING. 



nr HERE are very few garden crops in the man- 
agement of which it is not a point of greatest 
importance to be "first in market," for with the 
great majority to be first in market means first to 
sell and first in price. But in order to be first in 
market we must be first to sow. Good onions are 
usually as good a crop to sell as any other, especially 
if you offer to onion lovers those large, perfect 
specimens of Prizetaker along in August when there 
are none but poor, Southern-grown potato onions to 
come in competition with them. So I am usually 
more in a hurry about sowing onions than any other 
kind of plants for Spring setting. Indeed, when 
seed is sown in February, so that you can have 
good plants to set as early in Spring as the ground 
is in working order, you insure a paying crop 
against almost any whim of the season. Even if 
reduced one-half or more by drought or mildew, 
the yield will be equal to what most onion growers 
would call a good one, and the individual bulbs 
will still excel in beauty and selling value. We 
also want a good supply of early beet plants. Next 
come cauliflower and early cabbage, perhaps lettuce, 
and the plants should be large enough to go in cold 



52 DAMPING OFF FUNGUS. 

frames, for hardening off, in March, and be ready 
to set out in open ground just as soon as the season 
will permit. 

The great enemy to all seedling plants is the dis- 
ease known as '^ damping off," which is caused by a 
Plants Damp- fuugus and ofteu destroys whole beds 
ing Off. and flats of seedlings. We have some- 
times lost a great proportion of our onion seedlings 
from just this cause. Prof. T. B. Galloway gives 
the following account of it: " Its first appearance is 
indicated by a slight paleness and drooping of the 
seedlings. If these be carefully removed, it wiJl be 
seen that the root, either throughout its length or 
in portions, is beginning to shrink and decay and 
that the root hairs are destroyed. Later, if the 
plant is not vigorous enough to resist the fungus 
and to put forth secondary roots, the disorganiza- 
tion of the tissue extends to the stem, resulting 
ultimately in the toppling over of the plant and its 
thorough decay, although, in some instances, the 
plant remains green for some days after falling. 
This extends from one plant to another, until only 
a few or none of the seedlings in a bed may be left." 
Recent investigations seem to disclose the fact 
that the fungus gains entrance to the plants through 
the roots, and suggest, as proper means of preven- 
tion, the use of soil that is free from the fungus, or 
a treatment of the soil used with a view of killing 
the fungus germs if present in it. It may be placed 
in the warm and close atmosphere of the greenhouse 
for a while, and kept well watered until the fungus 
spores have supposedly begun to sprout, when it 
(the soil) should be exposed to a very hot and dry 



GEOWING ONION PLANTS. 53 

atmosphere for a while, so as to kill the tender 
fungus growth. Possibly watering soil with a 
solution of copper sulphate, a pound to two 
hundred gallons of water, may also free it from 
infection. Usually, if excessively high temperature 
(considering the nature of the plants) and close, 
moist atmosphere are avoided, and attention is 
paid to proper airing, the disease will give little 
trouble. The best precaution, however, is the use 
of new soil, made from old decayed sods, perhaps 
with the addition of a quarter, more or less, of 
clean, clear sand. Last winter I frequently and 
freely watered the soil, and sprayed the plants, with 
water colored a deep violet by permanganate of 
potash, and thus apparently kept the plants free 
from the attacks of the fungus. Often the trouble 
is only wilting from an insufficient amount of 
moisture at the roots, water thoroughly when at all. 

I have tried a number of varieties, but find that 
the Prizetaker outyields and outsells all others. 
Growing There are some fine white sorts, among 
onioii Plants, ^hem White Prizetaker, and White 
Yictoria, the latter at least when you have the right 
kind of seed. But white onions, while in good de- 
mand as early bunch onions, do not seem to find 
sale when dry, in competition with yellow kinds. 
Possibly there may be demand for them in some 
markets, but in our vicinity we can sell a load of 
Prizetakers about as quickly as we can find sale for 
a single bushel of white onions, no matter how fine 
they may be. 

The plants might be grown directly in beds on 
the benches, but I prefer to use flats. These are 



54 . GROWING ONION PLANTS. 

boxes of any size desired and three or four inches 
deep. The boxes in which local grocerymen receive 
their canned lish and meats, such as lobsters, 
salmon, beef, etc., and which are about 19 inches 
long, 10 or 11 inches wide, and 4 inches deep, are 
just about right, and quite handy, and may be 
picked up at the grocery stores in villages and 
small towns during the Winter. I usually get a 
full supply in this way. They can be used a 
number of years if care is taken of them. 

My way, and a very successful one of starting the 
plants, and growing the largest possible number in 
the smallest possible sj^ace, is as follows: The Hats 
are filled nearly full with the prepared soil. I then 
put them upon the ground, and press the soil 
down tightly in each Hat with the foot. Next I give 
a thorough watering, enough indeed to soak the soil 
pretty full. This is intended to furnish the supply of 
moisture needed during the next week or two. More 
soil is put upon the soaked layer, and pressed down 
with the hand or a small box, such as an empty 
cigar box. The seed is then sown evenly over the 
soil, at about the rate of one -tenth to one-eighth 
ounce to the square foot, and covered with a half 
or three-quarter inch of sand or soil, preferably the 
former. Another firming (with the box or piece of 
board) completes the operation. Tiie flats are set 
closely together on the benches, and watered as 
may be necessary. Whoever has a water-bench 
may give the required soaking from the bottom. 
There should be some cracks or openings left 
through which the water may gain admittance from 
below, and the flat is placed upon cleats or other 



GROWING ONION PLANTS. 55 

small articles to be slightly held above the bottom 
of the water-bench, standing in an inch or so of 
water. When the soil in the fiat is well saturated, 
the latter is taken out of the water-bench and placed 
upon the ordinary bench. In about ten days the 
plants should gradually make their ai3pearance 
above ground. The flats will need an occasional 
watering (sometimes perhaps with liquid manure), 
and airing in clear weather, that is gradually in- 
creased as the season advances. Onion plants are 
hardy, and will not require high heat at any time, 
from 45 to 55 degrees Fahrenheit being about right 
at night, and 60 to 70 degrees during the day. In 
clear days, later in the season, the temperature will 
naturally go up higher. The crop of seedlings will 
not require much care. Should weeds start up 
among the onion plants, they may be pulled up by 
hand, and if the plants grow up very tall, they may 
be clipped or shorn back once or twice as needed to 
make them stocky. I like to have them about as 
large as a goose-quill when ready to be planted out, 
but have to set them frequently much smaller. The 
first sowings I make about February 1st, and suc- 
cessive ones along in the same month, finishing oif 
before March. If I do not have bench space 
enough, I make a hot-bed with moderate bottom 
heat, and sow seed broadcast in same way and at 
same rate as in the flats. A flat of size named 
(19x11 inches) should give 600 good plants, possibly 
more. You can easily make your own calculations 
as to the number of flats, or the bed space required 
to give you the plants needed for the desired area. 
Be sure to make liberal allowance for failures in 



66 CABBAGE PLANTS. 

raising seedlings. In other words be sure to start 
plants enough. 

Lettuce, cabbage and cauliflower plants may be 

started right on the benches during February. You 

want them to go out in cold frame in March; for on 

the thorough hardening of the 

cauliflower Plants. P^^^^^ before being taken to open 

ground, depends much of the 

success in producing the early crops that pay best. 

It takes but a little bench space to start quite a 

number. Of course, early cabbage usually finds 

ready sale, and often proves to be one of the most 

profitable crops of the market gardener. This is 

especially the case where the crop is sold to a local 

retail trade. 

My way to start the plants is to make a few shal- 
low furrows, an inch or so apart, across the bench, 
with the finger or with a stick, and then sow the 
seed in them rather thickly, cover by rubbing across 
these rows with the fingers, thus covering the seed 
and leveling the ground, and firm with a piece of 
board, or a cigar or other small box. The plants 
will soon come up and need little attention, for as 
soon as they have made the first pair of true leaves, 
being then about two inches high, they are ready to 
go out into cold frames. The soil in the latter, of 
course, should be of the kind especially prepared 
for plants and made of rotted sods, loam, etc., but 
with only small additions of old manure. Mark out 
rows about three inches apart, and set the plants 
freshly taken up from the bench, one to two inches 
apart in the rows, pressing the soil tightly about 
the roots. An ordinary hot-bed sash should cover 



CABBAGE PLANTS. 57 

from 500 to 600 plants. Water well after setting 
the plants and then put on the sashes, leaving them 
on tightly in dark or cold weather, and giving air 
by tilting or in other ways, on all clear days and in 
warm weather. The amount of ventilation is to be 
gauged by the weather conditions, and you will 
have to use your own judgment to quite a considera- 
ble extent. 

I always like to give to the plants which I raise 
for my own planting, a good deal of room, for I 
like to have good plants with plenty of roots, and 
to take them up with some soil adhering to the 
roots, in order to give them the best possible chance 
for a quick start after transplanting. Quite gener- 
ally, however, the market gardener who is known 
to raise and have good stocky plants, will have con- 
siderable call for them. Early transplanted cabbage 
plants usually bring $3 to $4 a thousand, and they 
pay well at that, especially if one crowds them a 
little closer together in the frames than I would ad- 
vise to set them for one's own plants. An inch 
space between the plants in the rows will be suffic- 
ient. The number of plants grown under one ord- 
inary sash (^ X 6 feet) may thus be increased to fully 
800. At the prices named, it will be seen that a crop 
of cabbage plants is quite remunerative, especially 
in consideration of the short time required for its 
production, and of the fact that another crop can 
yet be grown in the same frame the same season. 
By all means grow all the early cabbage plants that 
you are sure you will need, or can find sale for. 
The variety — and perhaps the only one— which we 
want for this purpose is early Jersey Wakefield. 



58 CAULIFLOWER PLANTS. 

Our aim, of course, is to have strong, stocky, well- 
rooted i^lants ready to go in open ground just as 
soon as the soil is in right condition in spring. All 
that I have said about cabbage plants, applies also 
to cauliflower, and in a measure to lettuce plants. 
Of cauliflower varieties, I would select Early Erfurt 
and Snowball (which is a strain of the former), 
although there are various other strains of this type 
(Maule's Prize Earliest, etc.) which have given me 
flne heads and great satisfaction. Cauliflower seed 
is always expensive, and we have to be economical 
in its use. We should try to make every seed 
count, and therefore must not sow so thickly that 
thinning and consequent waste of plants becomes 
necessary. Nor should we sow more seed or try to 
raise more plants than we are sure will be needed 
for setting or sale. The crop must be started and 
grown early in order to be out of the blasting in- 
fluence of excessive summer heat. Usually the local 
demand for early cauliflower is limited, and in many 
places it will be easy to overstock the market. 
Among lettuces suitable for starting under glass 
and setting in open ground at the earliest possible 
date in spring, market gardeners usually grow 
Tennis Ball, and especially the Boston Market, 
which is a selected strain of the former. The varie- 
ties which I have recommended for forcing where a 
heading lettuce is preferred to the beautiful but 
loose-leaved Grand Rapids, are the ones I prefer for 
this purpose also. 

Early celery is an imiDortant crop, and usually 
pays well, especially when the grower sells his 
vegetables direct to retail buyers. White Plume 



CELERY PLANTS. 59 

is the variety ordinarily grown for this purpose, 
although Golden Self- Blanching is also a fine and 
suitable sort. The new Pink Plume 
ry an s. .^ suitable for the purposes of the 
home grower mostly. It is not difficult to grow 
the plants. We want them ready for setting in 
open ground during May, and seed should be 
sown along in February. If this is done much 
before the middle of February the plants are liable 
to '"bolt," i. d., go to seed rather than make a 
good salable plant. The first step is to fill flats 
with a well-prepared fertile loam. It should be 
well pressed down, and then come to within a half- 
incli of the top of boxes or flats. It is then given a 
good watering, a little more fine soil sprinkled on 
the surface, and the latter made smooth, even, and 
firm, by means of the firming board, or the small 
box already spoken of. Then seed is sown thickly 
enough that you can expect to get a thousand seed- 
lings, or thereabouts, to the square foot. Cover 
the seed lightly by sprinkling or sifting a little fine 
loam or sand over it, and again firming. Water as 
needed, either by overhead sprinkling (better spray- 
ing with a Knapsack sprayer, as I do) or by setting 
in the water bench. In ten days, more or less, the 
young seedlings will come up, and by the middle or 
end of March they should be large enough for trans- 
planting into the cold frames. This "" dibbling out" 
into frames is rather delicate work, on account of 
the small size of the plants, but with a little prac- 
tice it can be done quickly. The soil in the frames 
should be of same character as that recommended 
for cabbage and other plants, viz., a fibrous loam of 



60 BEET PLANTS. 

medium fertility; but it may be made a trifle riclier 
than for these. I usually mark out rows lightly, 
two inches apart across the frame, and try to set 
the plants an inch or less apart in the rows. This 
will give 1,200 plants or so to the ordinary hot-bed 
sash. The plants, when well grown, are usually in 
good demand, and sell at 50 cents per 100, or $4.00 
per 1,000. It will be seen that the crop, at these 
rates, is a paying one, and the young gardener 
should always try to raise as many as he will need 
and as he is sure he can sell at the prices named. 
Of course, the frames containing plants, whether 
they be cabbage, cauliflower, onion, lettuce or celery 
plants, will need occasional watering, weeding, and, 
perhaps stirring the soil about the plants, and 
thorough attention to ventilation. My favorite way 
to give air to them in the ordinary weather (clear, 
but raw) of early spring, is to move the sashes 
slightly sidewise or cornerwise: This is more easily 
done than tilting the sashes, and gives just about 
the right amount of ventilation at the corners of each 
frame section. We also want a good supply of good 
beet plants of the Eclipse or Early 

Beet Plants. -n> 1- 4- 4? ++• • 

EgyjDtian type, for setting m open 

ground as early as possible. Seed should be sown 
in rows on the greenhouse bench, say three inches 
apart, and plants left to stand one-half inch or so 
apart. The plants are easily grown, and easily 
transplanted. 

The use which we intend to make of our tomato 
plants must decide the manner of starting and man- 
aging them. Indeed we may deem it advisable to 
treat different lots in radically different ways. 



TOMATO PLANTS. 61 

Our chief aim, probably, will be to grow tomatoes 

for the market. In that case, we must try to get 

them before appreciative custom- 

'^'""ow/usT ^°'' ^^^ ^^ ^^^^^ ^^ possible. The 
prices usually obtainable in July 
and August are quite acceptable, often comparative- 
ly high. Sometimes, indeed, the gardener who has 
nice tomatoes, a little ahead of the rush, can ask 
his own prices for them, and secure several dollars 
per bushel, especially if selling in small lots to a 
good class of customers. It wall pay well to take 
some extra pains with a number of tomato plants 
for the purpose of securing an early supply. In the 
first place comes the proper selection of variety. 
There is a great deal of difference between varieties 
in this respect. For a while we had the King of the 
Earlies, a weak grower, producing a fairly large 
number of very early, but rather irregular tomatoes, 
of third or fourth quality. Its earliness really was 
its only virtue, and we gladly gave it up for the 
Early Euby, w^hich is not only still earlier than 
King of the Earlies, but also a better grower, and a 
better yielder of fair-sized, fairly smooth tomatoes, 
of second quality. Still earlier is the newly intro- 
duced Early Leader, which ripens a whole cluster 
of medium- sized fairly smooth tomatoes, far in ad- 
vance of any other variety I know of. 

In short, for earliest market and most profit, we 
must have a variety surely not inferior to the Ruby, 
and of this we must start plants quite early. I sow 
seed about middle of February, thickly, in flats, and 
when the seedlings are making the first pair of true 
leaves, I prick them out on the greenhouse bench, 



62 TOMATO PLANTS. 

say three inches apart each way, and let them grow 
until the tops begin to crowd. 

Then I give them more space, or at least cut or 
shear the tops off. This will keep them low, and 
force the laterals out, making the plants short and 
stocky. It is absolutely necessary that the plants 
should have plenty room for full development at all 
times. They must never be allowed to crowd one upon 
another. For the last shift I put them in the large- 
sized plant boxes, which one can now buy in the 
flat at about $2.50 per 1,000 from Michigan manu- 
facturers. The soil should not be excessively rich, 
nor the temperature excessively high, nor water be 
given in excessive quantities. We want a strong, 
hardy, stocky growth. Just before the time that we 
think is proper for planting them in open ground, 
v^e should try to harden these plants off properly 
by placing them for a few days and nights in a frame 
in some v^ell protected spot out of doors, leaving 
without cover even during the nights unless the 
weather is cold, when some slight protection by 
sash, shutters, or blankets may be given. Thus 
treated, the plants can be risked in a w^arm, some- 
w^hat protected spot out-doors quite early in the 
spring, and will stand even a slight frost unharmed. 
It is always a safe precaution, however, to hold 
some plants in reserve, and surely have a second, 
later lot on hand, which can be drawn upon should 
a mishap befall the earliest planted ones. My earli- 
est plants are always in bloom, and with fruit set, 
when planted out. 

For the main crop, which goes to supply our reg- 
ular retail customers during the entire season, we 



TOMATO PLANTS. 63 



want a really good, fairly large, solid and smooth 
tomato of the color that the consumers may prefer. 
In most markets we can do better with a red tomato 
than with a pink or purplish one. The Matchless 
is as yet nearly matchless, and the Ignotum is 
known well for a good and reliable sort. We can 
easily fare worse when taking others. But there 
are now a great many good tomatoes in general cul- 
tivation, and good new ones are being constantly in- 
troduced. Stone and Nickel Plate (a red Potato Leaf) 
are also good red sorts, while the newer '' Imperial" 
will be hard to beat among purplish ones. There is 
no particular need of setting plants of any of these 
varieties in open ground before all danger of spring 
frosts is passed, here usually the very last of May. 
My practice is to begin planting with small lots of 
plants, soon after May 20th, and finish by June 1st. 
Usually the plants will grow better, while the 
weather is still cool in early May, if they are left 
with some protection and having proper space, 
than if risked out in open ground too soon. 

Middle of March, here, is early enough to start 
the seed. The seedlings are handled in about the 
same fashion as already described for the earliest 
tomatoes, but the final shift, late in April, brings 
them into cold frames, where they can be properly 
protected during cold and raw weather, and also 
properly hardened by exposure during warmer 
weather. I prefer a rather stiff or fibrous loam, 
which will firmly adhere to the roots without 
crumbling when the plants are cut out of the frames 
in square chunks, with a spade, for their final 
transfer to open ground. Now I grow most of my 



64 TOMATO PLAIS'TS. 

plants in the plant boxes already mentioned, but of 
the four and one-half cube size. They can be 
handled more conveniently, set out in frames to 
harden, and taken to the field on a wheelbarrow or 
wagon without having the soil jarred off the roots. 
The great need of these plants for plenty of room 
can hardly be pointed out too strongly. Four 
inches square is the very least I want for plants of 
my own setting. Crowding makes long and spind- 
ling things, and such we do not want. 

If we want plants for the wholesale production of 
tomatoes as, for instance, to sell to canning estab- 
lishments at a low price, we must grow them on a 
still different plan. We want a good many plants, 
and must grow them cheaply. Indeed, we can 
hardly afford to devote much time and space to 
them. We may sow seed in flats early in April, 
and prick out the seedlings in cold frames or a mild 
hot-bed by the last of the same month, or early in 
May, setting them, say, three inches apart each 
way. The final transplanting to open ground can 
be done about June 1st, or as soon as all danger 
from late frosts is past. We don't want to run any 
risk of losing the plants, especially since we know 
them to be more easily hurt by frost than the 
plants started earlier and grown with more space 
between them, and therefore more stocky and more 
hardy. 

Growing tomato plants for sale used to be quite a 
lucrative business. Now plants are usually offered 
so abundantly and so cheaply in the open markets, 
by grocery and other stores, that it is often a ques- 
tion whether this branch of the business still pays. 



TOMATO PLANTS. 65 

At any rate we have to be guided in it by the kind 
of demand we have for plants. If we have customers 

willing to pay a good price for good 
^^Tor^slir*^ plants, say 25 cents per dozen, we can 

afford to produce them, and we will 
most likely grow them in flats, a dozen in a 
flat of 12x15 inches, or thereabouts, and manage 
them in the general way as we have managed our 
plants for main crop. We must understand that 
these plants make the most of their growth, and 
need the most space, mostly during the month of 
May, when the greenhouse benches have been 
gradually vacated by the removal of onion, cabbage, 
cauliflower and lettuce plants, and would stand 
empty save for such crops as tomato and similar 
plants. It needs very little fire at this time, and 
consequently the tomato plants can be grown with- 
out much expense or trouble. 

But the majority of plant buyers look very little 
upon the quality of the plants. Cheapness is their 
first, and often their only consideration. They 
want a dozen plants in a box for ten cents, or a 
hundred pulled up from the cold frame for forty or 
fifty cents. Consequently we have to grow these 
plants in the cheapest way possible, and cannot 
afford to give much space to each individual plant. 
The *' flats" to be used in this trade are little bits 
of boxes, say 4 or 5 by 6 or 7 inches or so, contain- 
ing a dozen or fifteen plants to be sold at ten or 
fifteen cents per box. Of course we must not start 
the seedlings too early, say not earlier than April, 
as they would be liable to become overgrown and 
spindling. The soil should be only moderately rich. 



66 TOMATO PLANTS. 

The cold frames also have become partially 
empty, as onions, cabbage, cauliflower, and lettuce 
plants have been taken out to the open ground. It 
vrill be better to utilize the space in the production 
of a late crop of tomato x)Jants, even if they have to 
be sold cheap, than to let them stand idle for the 
rest of the season. It does not require much space 
in greenhouse or hotbed to start a thousand tomato 
seedlings. Along in April or even in May, the 
seedlings may be put out into the frames in rows 
three inches apart one way, by about one and a 
half or two inches the other, thus crowding 400 to 
500 plants under one ordinary hotbed sash. The 
crop, when sold brings $2.00, more or less, additional 
revenue from each sash. I hav*^ known New Jersey 
gardeners to grow two successive crops of tomato 
plants in their frames, the last crop being sold to 
people who plant extremely late for canning factory, 
or who have lost their first plantings by late frost, 
by grubs, bugs or other causes, and find it necessary 
to replant. Of course the late crop of plants is 
usually sold at still lower figures, often at only one 
dollar per thousand. But it brings some money at 
trifling expense. 

Sometimes I find it convenient and profitable to 

make use of cuttings for propagation, as for instance 

when I have only a few seeds of an 

^c*tt"n*s^ especially choice variety, or when I 

find I have neglected to start a lot 

of seedlings in time, and want to catch up again. 

I can make a new plant much quicker by rooting a 

cutting than by sowing seed. Tomato cuttings 

root quite readily. If the soil is warm roots will 



EGG PLAISTS. 67 

form on the cutting within a week's time, when 
the cutting can be taken up and potted or boxed 
off. After the plants have their full size in the 
field, you will be unable to tell which was grown 
from a cutting and which from a seed. You can 
take the top or any of the side shoots and root it 
for a new plant. Cut the lower end slantingly with 
a sharp knife, and cut the larger leaves back to 
within an inch or two from the stem. Then insert 
the cutting in a bed of clean sand on the bench, 
keeping the sand quite moist. When you notice 
the beginning of new growth the cutting is ready 
to be taken up and planted out in frame or flat. 

I find egg plants about as easy a crop to raise as 

almost any other, and to the limited extent of the 

retail trade, one of the most profita- 

good xDlants, and set them in rich, 
warm ground, about June 1st, and we can rely on 
growing not less than from three to six good 
sized eggs, some of them eight inches long and six 
inches in diameter per plant. They have usually 
sold from five to fifteen cents apiece, and a season's 
returns from one plant may foot up 50 cents. At 
the same time we usually plant close, namely, in 
rows not over three, sometimes only two feet apart, 
with about 18 inches space between the plants in 
the row. If we only had sale enough at retail rates, 
we would gladly plant this crop by the acre. The 
surplus, however, can be barreled and sent to the 
commission men in the nearest big city, or sold to 
the grocers nearer by. They will pay as well as 
tomatoes any way, and usually much better. I use 



68 PEPPER PLANTS. 

an improved strain of the New York Purple. In 
colder locations, earlier and smaller varieties, such 
as the Early Long Purple, or any of the Japanese 
importations, will be found preferable, as the New 
York Purple may refuse to set fruit. The more 
dwarfish varieties seem to be hardier and yield a 
large number, up to ten or a dozen of eggs. 

Sow seed in flats, using rather richer soil than for 
tomatoes, and stand the flats in the warmest part of 
the house. Tomato plants may be grown in about 
65 degrees to 75 degrees Fahrenheit during the day 
(of course up to 90 degrees during sun-shiny weather), 
and 55 degrees to 65 degrees during the night. 
Egg plant will stand five degrees to ten degrees 
more. When the seedlings are about two inches 
high (having the first pair of true leaves) they may 
be pricked out into flats or on the greenhouse bench, 
and handled in the same general fashion as tomato 
plants. They can stand a little closer than tomato 
plants, however, without suffering. Shift as needed, 
always using rich soil; finally plant them in pots or 
flats, in soil that will stick well to the roots, so they 
will keep on growing right along when planted out 
in open ground June 1st. If you have plants for 
sale you may ask about double rate that you get 
for tomato plants, but the demand is quite limited. 

Green and red peppers are usually in good de- 
mand late in the fall. It does not require a long 
season to grow them, and as there is 

Peppw'piants. ^^ premium on earliness, plants may 

be started and planted out rather late. 

Any time in April, or, perhaps, the first of May, is 

time enough to sow seed, if, afterwards, you push 



FOKCING CUCUMBERS. 69 

the plants right along. They will not need much 
space either. I usually plant Ruby King, red, and 
Golden Upright, yellow. Plants may be sold at the 
same rate as tomato plants. You can have them in 
flats, or grow them directly on the greenhouse 
benches, or in hot-beds and cold-frames. When 
one has sale for plants of any kind, the aim must be 
to keep the greenhouse and frames full all the time 
until the end of the plant growing season. Every 
little helps, and even if there is no fortune in plant 
growing, it will give some revenue, and in the aggre- 
gate prove profitable. In some localities it may be 
advisable to devote some greenhouse space to the 
propagation of pansies, verbenas, perhaps primroses 
and other flowers. Pansies are easily grown from 
seed, which should be sown in January or February. 
The young plants are to be pricked out in cold 
frames in March or April, or seed may be sown in 
August in open ground, and the plants wintered 
over in cold frames. Verbenas are usually propa- 
gated from cuttings, but may also be grown from 
seed. Of course this is a side issue, to which I can 
do little more than simply call the attention of the 
reader. 

When the greenhouse benches begin to be vacated 
in April or early May, and no late crop of plants is 

to occupy them, the space may 
'"«7T.mr,r' be used for forcing a crop of 

cucumbers or tomatoes, or both, 
to be ready for use or sale some weeks in advance 
of the earliest outdoor crop. Cucumbers are not 
difficult to raise in a greenhouse. I select Forcing 
White Spine, and plant the se^ed right into the 



70 FORCING TOMATOES. 

benches in a row along the centre of bed, three or 
four seeds in a place, about a foot apart. Only one 
good plant is to be left. I stretch wires across the 
bench, and from these strings or other wires per- 
pendicularly up to hooks inserted into the rafters 
overhead. The vines are trained up on the wires, 
and also on wires stretched along under the roof. 
To insure fruit setting, a small camel' s hair brush 
should be frequently dipped into the male (stamin- 
ate) flowers, loaded with pollen, and then slightly 
brushed or dusted over the pistils of the female 
(fruit) flowers. The pistils thus touched will grow 
and produce fruit; those not so treated will most 
likely wither away. Early greenhouse cucumbers 
usually find ready sale at acceptable prices, and I 
think, as a rule, they prove more satisfactory, less 
troublesome and far more profitable than greenhouse 
tomatoes. 

In order to grow the latter at this time, it is 
necessary to start the plants from seed or cuttings 
not later than January, shift often into larger and 
larger pots or boxes, always allowing plenty of 
room, and finally put them each into a box contain- 
ing about a cubic foot of soil, or into a deep bench 
bed. The best variety for this purpose, I think, is 
the Lorillard. The plants are trained up on upright 
wires or strings. We allow three branches to the 
plant, and remove all others. They must be tied 
promptly as needed. The first blossoms may fail to 
set fruit for want of pollen. Growers may find it 
profitable to gather a lot of tomato flowers in late 
Summer, dry them, and save the pollen for use on 
the tomato flowers in early Spring. It will insure 



FORCII^G TOMATOES. 71 

the desired fruit setting. A little later, wlien the 
sun gets higher, and brings heat and dryness, pollen 
will be developed and matured in sufficient quantity 
to pollinate the pistils, and fruit will set. The first 
fruit, if not properly pollinated, sometimes remains 
small and seedless. From June on nothing more is 
to be grown in the greenhouse until Fall. As oppor- 
tunity offers, it may be cleaned out, all soil remov 
ed, and the house thoroughly fumigated by burn- 
ing a quantity of brimstone in it while tightly 
closed. Then toward Fall the empty benches will 
be a capital place for curing pickling and other 
onions, and when they are out again, new soil may 
be put in for a renewal of activities. 



CHAPTER VL 



HOT-BEDS AND COLD-FRAMES. 



T ITTLE need be said about the construction of 

hot-beds and cold frames. They consist of 

simple plank frames, say six feet wide (or of proper 

width to accommodate the length of the sashes), 

with a four or six inch incline towards 
^^^Framer °^ ^^® noon sun, and as long as required 

for the number of sashes. To make 
hot-beds of them we set them upon a layer of heat- 
ing manure while for simple cold frames we place 
them upon the surface of the ground, in both cases 
of course in a well protected spot, and somewhere 
near the greenhouse and the water supply. When 
we have the use of a greenhouse we seldom need 
hot-beds, and at any rate we will not find it neces- 
sary to start them very early. A manure hot-bed is 
often a vexatious thing. The greenhouse relieves 
us of much or all of the annoyance that is often 
connected with the undertaking of heating beds. 



HOT-BED MAKING. 73 

my means of manure. We need cold-frames mostly. 
The plants can be started in the greenhouse and 
then pricked out in the cold frames, or later on the 
larger plants from the greenhouse hardened off in 
the frames as already directed. 

But if we do need hot-beds we must have the right 
kind of manure. The best for the purpose is horse 
manure, from well-fed and hard-worked horses. It 

may contain some urine- soaked litter, 
for^*o^^eds. ^^ ^^^^^ better, a portion of dry forest 

leaves that have been used for bed- 
ding. If you can get some fresh spent hops from 
the brewery to mix in with the manure, the proper 
heating of the material is well assured. Sheep 
manure will do to mix with the horse manure. Cow 
manure is too cold. If you have clear horse manure, 
and it refuses to come to a heat, or if the manure is 
too wet to heat well, you may add bran or cotton- 
seed meal, and make a sure thing of it. Fork the 
manure over a few times, at intervals of a few days, 
and then pack the steaming mass into a compact 
layer, and cover with hot-bed soil, say four or five 
inches deep. For the cold-frames simply put this 
layer of prepared soil (of moderate fertility for 
plant growing, very rich for forcing vegetables) upon 
the ground in the frame. Let the surface of the soil 
come up as near to the sash glass as the nature of 
the plants to be grown will allow. The tops of 
plants should always be near the glass. 

In some cases, waste steam of factories becomes 
available for frame-heating purposes. The steam 
might be conducted in a very simple manner, inside 
of common drain tile, lines of which are laid under 



74 



HOT-BED MAKING. 



the hot-bed soil. But even in this case I would pre- 
fer to have a greenhouse or a little pit of some kind, 
and heat this by the waste steam. Further details of 
hot-bed and cold-frame construction and manage- 
ment may be learned from the seed catalogues of 
our leading seedsmen. 




PART II. 



"A LITTLE PLOT WELLTILLED." 



OPEN AIR OPERATIONS. 



CHAPTER Vll. 



WHAT SHALL WE PLANT? 



IITE want to make sure to meet conditions, not 
theories. The mere belief that such and 
such a crop should and would sell well, is not 
usually a safe foundation for a trial of such a crop 
on a very extensive scale. Always try to avoid the 
very common mistake of raising a lot of stuff which 
you cannot sell after it is grown. The beginner's 
first duty and most urgent precaution is to ascertain 
what crops you can sell to advantage. Even with 
the greatest care, the grower will not always avoid 
mistakes, and this perhaps for no fault of his own, 
for market conditions change, and the same vege- 
table that is in ready demand and brings good prices 
one season, may be in excessive supply and hardly 
salable at low figures the next season. Indeed it 
is a common thing to see one extreme follow anoth- 
er. This is only the natural result of the tendency 
of the average grower to rush into a certain line of 
products as soon as this line gives more than ordin- 
ary profits. All this shows that the gardener has 
much use for good judgment in the selection of his 



78 WHAT TO PLANT. 

crops, and in determining how large an area of soil 
lie should plant. 

On the other hand the gardener who supplies a 
regular retail trade must grow a little of everything, 
and at all times, in order to be sure to supply at any 
time what his customers may call for. The greater 
the variety of vegetables that he can offer, the bet- 
ter will be his trade and the better his customers 
will be satisfied. The prudent way for the begin- 
ner, therefore, is to plant comparatively small 
patches of every kind of vegetables, and many of 
them, such as radishes, carrots, lettuce, beets, etc., 
etc., in more or less regular intervals right along in 
order to be sure of having them in prime condition 
the whole season through. The only crops which he 
can plant on a more extensive scale with safety, are 
those for which he is absolutely sure of finding a 
ready market. Among such crops may be named 
the great staples which are not especially perishable, 
and which, if they find no sale at satisfactory prices 
in one place, may be readily shipped in bulk or 
otherwise to other markets, or disposed of through 
commission houses or other channels of regular 
trade. Foremost among them are early potatoes 
(perhaps late ones also), onions, and some of the 
various fruits. 

Under favorable circumstances even perishable 
crops, such as celery, sweet corn, early peas, string 
and Lima beans, spinach, root crops, strawberries, 
raspberries, currants, gooseberries, etc., may be 
grown extensively and profitably for the commis- 
sion or shipping trade. Under ordinary circum- 
stances, I think I could give no better general advice 



EARLY VEGETABLES. 79 

to the beginner in market gardening than to put his 
reliance for remuneration, at the start, chiefly on 
staple crops, so as to be sure of a reasonable in- 
come, and to plant the various kinds of vegetables 
in small patches, as already advised, so as to have 
the materials with which to work up a better pay- 
ing retail trade. Whether Spring crops are grown 
for a retail or wholesale trade, however, the one 
great thing of importance is to have them as much 
as possible in advance of the rush, or just at a time 
when the markets are not well supplied and cus- 
tomers appreciate good vegetables most and are 
willing to pay well for them. 

In order to be able to be '^ first in market," 
we need, above all other things, a piece of warm, 
sun-exposed ground. Often it will pay well to pro- 
vide artificial protection against the 

Early Vegetables. • tvt xi t ttt x • t i 

sweeping North and West winds by 
erecting high and tight board fences, or by planting 
an evergreen screen (spruces, etc.) at the north and 
west sides of the patch. To fit the soil for early 
operations in Spring, it should be plowed in narrow 
beds or ridges in the Fall. A sun-exposed, protec- 
ted spot of this kind, when Fall-plowed in this way, 
will be fit for work, and produce hardy crops, 
weeks in advance of ordinary soils. To make the 
most of a spot thus favored, prompt action is neces- 
sary. Just as soon as the weather and soil condi- 
tions will permit (and not a day later), the first 
seeds should go in and the first plants be set out. 
Spinach, onions, peas, radishes, lettuce, carrots, 
beets, etc., are hardy enough to endure quite a cold 
spell uninjured, if the soil was properly prepared. 



80 EARLY VEGETABLES. 

sometimes there will be a heavy fall of snow after 
these vegetables are sowed or planted, but they will 
come on all right after the snow goes off. To sum 
up, the conditions of success in producing vegeta- 
bles earlier than your competitors are: 1. A warm, 
rich, well-pro fcec ted spot of ground, sandy loam 
preferred. 2. Plowing this land in narrow beds in 
the Fall, or during Winter, if it is an open one. 3. 
Sowing or planting at the earliest possible moment 
that the soil can be gotten in thoroughly good 
working order. 



CHAPTER VIII 



MANURES FOR THE GARDEN. 



'T^HE manure question is one which deserves the 
earnest thought and study of every soil tiller, 
and of the vegetable gardener especially. Without 
the most liberal use of proper manures there will be 
no satisfactory cropping, and little chance of profits 
in gardening. It will pay every gardener to read 
special works on the philosophy of manures and 
manure application, such as for instance my '' Prac- 
tical Farm Chemistry." 

No soil is fit for gardening purposes unless it is 
rich, warm, loose and " lively," and it can be so only 
when containing a large proportion of decaying 
vegetable matter — the so-called humus. If soil is 
close and hard, the first thing is to loosen it by ad- 
ditions of this vegetable matter, either by plowing 
down green crops in combination with liberal dress- 
ing of mineral manures, or better and more quickly, 
by the free application of stable manures. I always 
consider good compost the mainstay of the gardener, 



82 APPLYING MANURES. 

although under some conditions concentrated com- 
mercial fertilizers alone have given me good results, 
and are perfectly reliable. The possessor of an old 
market garden usually has the advantage over the 
new beginner, in having manure-filled soil quickly 
responding to [good treatment, and therefore the 
benefits of the accumulating effects of annual and 
heavy manure applications, while the new and per- 
haps raw soil of the beginner, even with most liberal 
manuring and the best of tillage, cannot be expected 
to give full crops at the start. It takes some time, 
and persistent manuring, to bring up a piece of 
garden land to its fullest productive cajDacity, 
although there are exceptions to this rule. 

Where to get the needed supply of stable manure 
is often a serious problem for the gardener. One 
horse, one cow, a pig or two, and some hens, which 
comprise about all the stock that a beginner in 
market gardening usually keeps, do not produce 
more than a small part of the manure that he is 
likely to require. If he lives near the stock yards 
of a large city, he may be able to purchase all he 
wants there at reasonable rates. 

Sometimes the gardener near smaller cities or near 
villages may be able to pick up all the manure he 
can haul home and use, at livery stables, black 
smith's shops, or at private houses, whose owners 
keep a horse, or cow, etc., no pay, or only a nominal 
price being asked for it. A ton of good manure, 
compared with the current rates of concentrated 
commercial fertilizers, is easily worth $2. It is sel- 
dom that such a price is asked for it. In most 
places gardeners can have stable manure at not more 



COMPOSTING MANURES. 83 

than from 50 cents to $1 per load, and at such rates 
the gardener can well afford to purchase stable 
manure to the fullest extent that he can use it to 
advantage 

Manure that is well rotted and fine is in proper 
condition to go into the land at once. It can be 
spread as fast as hauled. Coarse stuff had better 
be piled up in deep, square heaps, 
^Sur?^ under shelter if possible, allowed to 
come to hot fermentation, and then be 
turned from time to time until it breaks down into a 
fine, dark-colored mass without offensive odor. Fre- 
quent turning, and possibly water applications when 
under shelter, may be absolutely necessary to prevent 
firefang. I always like to add 10 to 15 pounds of 
kainit, and as much bone meal or acid phosphate to 
each load of manure that I put on my land. 

I have an especially high idea of the value of 
poultry manure, and always save all the accumnla- 
tions and scrapings from my poultry houses for the 
garden. In spring this excellent manure (mixed 
with the muck, loam or coal ashes used as absorb- 
ents) is scattered evenly, but thinly, over the plowed 
ground, where I intend to plant onions, celery, let- 
tuce and other close-planted vegetables. This ma- 
nure always gives me the most marked effects on 
onions and other crops. 

Wood ashes is another domestic fertilizer, the 
value of which can hardly be over estimated. I use 

^ , ^ all I can pick up, both leached and 

Wood Ashes. , i t .t i. 

unleached, the former, oi course, more 
liberally than the latter, and always as a top dress- 
ing. In some cases the gardener finds it difficult to 



84 COMPOSTING MANURES. 

procure all the stable manure he needs. Then other 
sources of plant food will have to be drawn upon. 
If a good muck bed is at hand, the task of procuring 
a manure that will have all the loosening and en- 
livening effects of compost, becomes a comparatively 
easy one. Dry, well-seasoned (powdery) muck, freely 
scattered in privies, stables, sinks, etc., will be trans- 
formed into a most excellent garden manure. The 
available supply of stable manure may also be 
doubled by composting the fresh manure with an 
equal bulk of this muck. Finally, a good enough 
compost can be made out of the muck by compost- 
ing it with wood ashes (two bushels to the ton of 
muck) and bone meal (10 to 25 pounds) or with bone 
and muriate of potash. Without muck I would 
try to improve the quality of the available stable 
compost by mixing with it larger quantities of bone 
meal and muriate of potash, or kainit, and applying 
the resulting compost in half rations. When stable 
manure has [been freely applied for years and the 
soil is well supplied with organic matter, we may 
safely omit this kind of manure for a year or so and 
rely on concentrated commercial fertilizers alone. 
In that case 1,000 to 2,000 pounds of bone meal and 
200 to 300 pounds of muriate of potash, or in place 
of the latter, one to two tons of unleached wood 
ashes or twice that amount of leached wood ashes, 
may be applied per acre. The applications may be 
made in fall, winter or very early spring. Dressings 
of nitrate of soda, 200 to SOO pounds per acre, are 
always in order for onions, celery, cabbage, beets 
and many other garden crops. 

Of course the various garden crops do not require 



AMOUNTS OF MANURES. 85 

an equal amount of manure. Onions, strawberries, 
^ ^„ celery, cabbage, cauliflower, spinach, 

Amounts of Manure. , ., ..r, ' ^ 

lettuce, radishes, cucumbers, egg 
plants, lima beans, etc., can hardly be given too 
much. There is no danger even in excessive appli- 
cations. From sixty to eighty one-horse loads of 
good compost, or their equivalent, are none too 
many. The more manure the better the crop. There 
are other crops, however, which are more modest in 
their requirements. Thirty to forty loads per acre, 
or their equivalent, will do well enough for peas, 
snap beans, carrots, parsnips, potatoes, tomatoes, 
raspberries and blackberries, or other small fruits. 



CHAPTER IX. 



THE PERENNIAL CROPS FOR MONEY. 



NT O garden products can be considered a safer 
and more reliable source of revenue than the 
perennials, asparagus, rhubarb, and perhaps some 
of the small fruits. It should be the first concern 
of the young market gardener to start a nice 
plantation of these money crops. 

Nice fat stocks of asparagus are always salable 
and always profitable. And they are easily pro- 
duced with very little labor. You plant asparagus 
roots, and you are sure to raise an- 
nual crops, if you give them half a 
chance; you raise asparagus and you are sure to be 
able to sell it at a good price. This is more than 
can be said of all other vegetables, the production 
of which is easily overdone. Select a rich, warm 
piece of ground. Manure it well. Plow it deep. 
If possible, let it be a portion of a patch off one side 
where it will be a little out of the way, and where 
these perennials can be left for years without inter- 
fering with the proper working of the annual crops. 
Set a quarter acre at the very least. It will take a 
thousand plants for a patch of this size, and you 
can buy them from a near plant grower or niarsery- 



GROWING ASPARAGUS. 87 

man for $3 or $4. Be sure to get strong one-year 
plants. Rather pay more for them than set poor, 
puny plants. Open furrows the long way of the 
patch, 5 or 6 feet apart. The plants are to be set 
two feet apart in the rows. It is only the dejDth of 
setting them about which there can be any doubt. 
This depends on the kind of "grass" that our 
market calls for. If the demand is for blanched 
stalks, we set the plants not less than six inches 
deep; if for the green stalks, not less than four 
inches deep. Still the difference is chiefly one of 
afterculture. The illustrations here given will make 
this point clear to everyone. 

Fig. 1 shows the way of growing blanched or 
white stalks. Good level culture is to be given with 
cultivator and hoe during the first year. Keep the 




patch free from weeds and give the plants every 
chance to grow strong. The year following, when 
the plants should be old and large enough to yield 
some " grass," the row may be ridged as shown in 
illustration. But there is where the important 
point comes in. The soil directly over the young 
plants, where the young shoots have to pass through, 
must be very loose and light, in order to offer as 
little obstruction as possible to the tender stalks. 
The latter then grow rapidly and smooth, and there- 
fore as tender and stringless as can be. In short, 
for growing this kind of asparagus (and it usually 
sells readily at best prices) you should have over 



88 GROWING ASPARAGUS. 

the plants a sandy loam that is kept loose and 
porous by an abundance of vegetable matter or 
humus. Applications of muck may help a hard 
soil. 

When the sMk is an inch or two above ground it 
is ready to cut. The patch must be gone over, and 
the stalks gathered at least once a day during the 
height of the cutting season. Any sharp kitchen 
knife will do for cutting. Insert the point a little 
slantingly toward the stalk in such a manner that 
the latter will be cut off about four inches below the 
level of the ground. A few inches of each stalk, no 
matter how grown, next to the root crown, are 
always tough and stringy, and should be rejected. 

For sale, tie the " grass " in neat bunches of about 
a pound in weight. These bunches are about three 
inches in diameter and seven or eight inches long. 
If each plant has plenty of space (as I have advised 
to set them), the stalks are " fat,'' often an inch or 
more in diameter, and it will not take very many to 
make a bunch. Most market gardeners use a 
buncher, such as you can buy from any large hard- 
ware dealer or professional seedsman. Rubber 
bands, bast, raffia or some nice colored ribbon may 
be used as tying material. You can also proceed in 
the following manner: Take the day's cutting to 
the wash room, and throw them into the tank with 
clean water. Take an ordinary large coffee cup. 
Slip a rubber band of suitable size over the cup. 
Then take the clean stalks out of the cup and stand 
them, head down, into the cup until it is as full as 
can be crowded in. Then slip the rubber band from 
the cup over the bunch and take the latter out of 



GROWING ASPARAGUS. 89 

the cup. Cut off the butt ends of the bunch evenly, 
and the bunch is ready for the market. 

The other, a simpler and easier way of growing 
asparagus, is shown in Fig. 2. All you have to do 
is to set the plants and give them good level cultiva- 
tion. Cut the plants when six or eight inches high, 
and bunch as has been directed for blanched stalks. 

The beds should be given a rest along in June 
when green peas take the place of asparagus in the 
markets. Then let the stuff grow up until fall, 
when the old stalks are to be cut off and removed 




from the patch, with all the seeds still on them. An 
annual dressing of rotted manure, or of fertilizers, 
ashes, etc., should not be omitted, and a few hun- 
dred pounds of nitra;te of soda per acre scattered 
over the patch in early spring will usually give good 
returns. 

As to varieties, I think the old Conover's Colossal 
is yet as good as any other. There are quite a num- 
ber of so-called " improved" sorts, but I have never 
been able to see much difference between them. If 
you can buy the "Mammoth," or Palmetto, etc., 
without having to pay fancy figures for novelties, 
you will be perfectly safe in planting them. The 
latest introduction in this line is the Columbian 
Mammoth White. It is especially recommended for 
its white stalks. It may therefore be preferable 
when we grow asparagus by the method shown in 
Fig. 2. If we grow and cut our stalks under ground. 



90 EHUBARB. WINTER ONIONS. 

as in the first described metliod, we will have white 
stalks anyway, and will not need a self-blanching 
sort, a White Plume among the asparagus. 

The rhubarb patch may adjoin the asparagus bed, 

rows running the same (long) way. Make them four 

feet apart, and set good, strong plants four feet 

apart in the row. The soil should be 

Bhubarb. 

made very rich and plowed deej). You 
cannot use good, old manure too freely, nor cultivate 
too thoroughly. The second season, when the plants 
are making strong growth, begin to pull. Pull the 
leaf stalks, trim off most of the leaf growth, tie in 
bunches of a few pounds each and sell. They are 
usually in good demand at prices that make the crop 
a profitable one. In order to have plants for a future 
extension of bed, it will be well to sow a little seed 
every few years, in same way as you would sow 
parsnip or similar seed. The plants are easily grown 
under ordinary, clean cultivation, and the strongest 
growing ones among them may be picked out and 
saved for starting the new patch. 

The Egyptian or Tree Onion should also find a 
place in a corner out of the way with the other per- 
manent beds, the herbs, asparagus, rhubarb, etc. I 
. mention it here because it is a fav- 

orite for bunching. It is not a good 
onion, does not make a bulb proper, and is not of 
good flavor. But it sells, as other green stuff is 
scarce and often entirely absent at the time when 
we can get plenty of these winter onions. They are 
about the hardiest of all vegetables, and will grow 
luxuriantly as long as the ground is not actually 
frozen up. They are also immensely productive, 



STRAWBERRIES. 91 

and a little corner of them will furnish great quan- 
tities of thick, green stalks. They also force well 
under glass, and can be used to yield plenty of green 
onions (or something resembling them) during the 
cold season, even in a rather cold greenhouse. In 
short, while I would not want this vegetable for my 
own use, there are few that can be made more profit- 
able for market, under ordinary culture as well as 
by forcing. You can start a bed of them in spring 
or fall by planting sets. 

Another crop that the young market gardener 

must have, and which is sure to bring good profits 

if well managed, is the strawberry. You will want 

at least half an acre. Select a rich, 

strawberries. ^^^^^ ^^^^^ .^ possible, and set good, 

strong plants of Bubach, Haverland, Crescent or any 
other very productive variety, new or old, as long 
as it is suitable to your soil and locality, not to for- 
get to mix in an occasional row or two of some good 
perfect-flowering sort, like Warfield, Wilson, Beder 
Wood, etc. This is for the purpose of providing 
the needed pollen in the required or desirable abund- 
ance. The best way for the young market gardener 
(and old one too) is to set a new patch early every 
spring, and plow up the old patch soon after the 
first crop is off. Have rows four feet apart, and 
plants 18 to 24 inches apart in the row. We set the 
plants with a spade, and it is quick work. The 
young patch needs prompt attention with the Planet 
Jr. horse wheel-hoe all season long to keep it scrupu- 
lously free from weeds. When the ground is frozen 
up in late fall or early winter, put a coat of marsh 
hay all over the whole patch for a mulch. This is 



92 SMALL FEUITS. 

to be removed in the spring and the bare spaces be- 
tween the rows stirred up with a fine-toothed and 
very narrow cultivator. After that the mulch may 
be put back between the rows, leaving only the 
plants without cover. This will discourage the 
weeds long enough to keep them down until after 
the crop is gathered. The patch can then be plowed 
up and utilized for the production of a crop of late 
potatoes, late celery, fall spinach, carrots, radishes, 
turnips, or possibly others. 

I would also strongly advise the young market 
gardener to have a patch of raspberries, especially 
the red sorts where they sell well, of blackberries, 

/^.v « , currants and gooseberries. All these 

other Fruits. ?^ .. , . 

crops pay quite well where they can 
be sold at the usual retail rates. The same may be 
said of grapes and all other fruits. If you have land 
for the purpose, set out a good supply of all such 
crops. They will sell with the rest of the stuff, and 
do not require very much space on the wagon com 
pared with the amount of money they bring. It is 
always well to have a variety of products with which 
to tempt customers. One thing sells another. The 
proper location for these fruits, of course, is with 
the other perennial crops, the asparagus, rhubarb, 
etc., and a littJe off one side, to interfere as little as 
possible with the proper working of the ever-chang- 
ing vegetable crops. 



CHAPTER X. 



EARLY CROPS FOR EARLY MONEY. 



A S SOON as the ground is ready to receive them, 
^^ seed of the early crops should go in without 
delay. On the whole, the job of seed sowing, on a 
moderate scale, does not require much time, and 
therefore does not interfere much with the work of 
setting plants. No matter how pressing that may 
be, we always let seed sowing take the precedence 
of plant setting. We want to get the seeds into the 
ground and have them growing just as soon as this 
is practicable. Among the early money crops, we 
have early peas as one of the foremost and most 
important. It continues to bring in the money at 
the end of the asparagus season, and during straw- 
berry time. Strawberries and the more bulky green 
peas fit well together oi;i the vegetable wagon. 

With this crop we are in an especial hurry, for on 
its earliness depends its price, and sometimes its 
ready sale. The variety we want is one of the first 
early smooth sorts, such as Alaska, 
Station, Rural New Yorker, Maule's 
Extra Early, Earliest and Best, or even the older 
Dan O'Rourke and Philadelphia. There is not so 
very much difference between all of these, and which 
ever of them you will select will give you a good 
crop of very early peas if you manage them with 
discretion All of them can stand very rich ground, 



94 PEAS FOR PROFIT. 

although one of moderate fertility is all they require. 
We open the furrows with the Planet Jr. furrow- 
ing attachment to the horse hoe, making them about 
two feet or more apart. On very rich soil we should 
have them three feet apart. We make a quart of 
seed reach over about 200 feet of row. The covering 
is done with the feet, or with a hoe, or with the 
hillers of the Planet Jr., horse hoe, or with any 
other covering device. To keep the ground in good 
tilth and free from weeds, we use the Breed weeder 
as often as seems needed, and think there is no tool 
equal to it for the purpose. When you have no 
Breed weeder, use any good horse cultivator. If 
slugs become troublesome, we soon get rid of them 
by spraying the plants, after dusk, with salt water, 
or dusting them, at the same time of day, with lime. 
As the picking season approaches, make sure of 
having pickers enough. Perhaps you can let them 
pick strawberries one day and peas the next. Usually 
you will find ready sale for these first early peas at 
prices ranging from 40 cents per peck at the start, 
down to 20 or 25 cents per peck during the height 
of the peas season. Make a careful estimate of the 
quantity of green peas you can handle advantage- 
ously, and be sure to plant no more than that. 
Green peas are an inexpensive and easy crop to grow, 
and at $1 a bushel they are quite profitable. The 
vines can be cleared off in time to grow on the same 
land a crop of late potatoes, celery, cucumbers, 
pickles, or beets, radishes, turnips, spinach, etc. 
For a discriminating market we may grow the early 
wrinkled peas for main crop, such as McLean's 
Little Gem, Nott's Excelsior, Bliss' Abundance and 



BUNCHING ONIONS. 95 

Everbearing and others. Sometimes there is a good 
demand for green peas later in the season. The 
Champion of England is very late, very good in 
quality, and unfortunately very tall. Farmers often 
sow it in larger blocks broadcast. The market gar- 
dener should brush it, or select a more dwarf grow- 
ing variety. 

Another crop that we want to get into the ground 

just as soon as the soil can be got in shape, is that 

of sets for bunching. I class onion sets with seeds, 

for I sow them into furrows as I would 

inch or inch and a half. The old way 
of pressing each set separately into the soil with the 
fingers is too slow and tiresome. The sets can stand 
much closer crowding than is generally given them. 
Why waste so much space and so much labor? 
Simply open furrows by means of a hand plow (for 
instance the plow attachment to the Planet Jr. 
hand wheel hoe) about two inches deep. Have them 
a foot apart, and in them scatter the sets as already 
mentioned; then cover with the same plow, or with 
the feet or a hoe, as you may prefer. In this way a 
good lot of sets are easily and quickly planted. 
,They will need only a moderate amount of hand 
labor; running over them a few times with the hand 
wheel hoe, and hoeing out stray weeds being all that 
will be required. The crop, therefore, is not an ex- 
pensive one, and as there is usually a ready demand 
for the bunches of from a dozen down to six of the 
green onions (according to size of the specimens) at 
about five cents for two bunches, it gives good re- 
turns for the labor and outlay. 



CHAPTER XI. 



VEGETABLES FROM SEED. 



pi^OE. the whole list of vegetables that are to be 
planted in close rows, such as beets, carrots, 
radishes, spinach, celery for soup and plants, pars- 
ley, etc., I prepare the land in a lump all at once. 
One cannot be too thorough in making a nice seed 
bed. Plow deep and well, and then use the harrow, 
going over the patch time and time again until the 
surface is as smooth and free from lumps as a floor. 
The tools we use in preparing ground for these crops 

are an ordinary smoothing harrow 
tii^'see"Bed. ^^^ drag), and the Meeker harrow or 

pulverizer. As long as any lumps 
remain, we change from one to another of these two 
implements, using first the drag, then the Meeker, 
then the drag again, and so forth. We should not 
be like some doctors — do poor work and cover it 
with earth. It will not do to have the soil under- 
neath lumpy and just an inch or two on top smooth 
and tine. The soil should be as " mellow as an ash 
heap," clear down to the subsoil. If necessary, we 
prepare the land as well as we can by one plowing 
and repeated harrowing, and then plow and harrow 
again, thus working the soil "on both sides." In- 
deed this will often pay exceedingly well. I some- 
times plow patches even a third time. The whole 
field intended for the small stuff is plowed and fitted. 



GROWING SPINACH. 97 

as early in spring as the weather and condition of 
soil will allow. The rows are marked out a foot 
apart as we need them for planting. Then we drill 
in the spinach, the radishes, the beets, celery for the 
main crop, carrots, etc., and at once begin to set our 
onion, beet and lettuce plants, cabbage and cauli- 
Hower plants, etc. 

A couple of weeks or so later we may wish to sow 
another lot of radishes and other vegetables, salsify, 
parsnip, etc., and before we do that we would better 
freshen up the plat yet to be planted, by plowing 
or, anyway, by re-harrowing. A crop of weeds is 
killed at the same time and in the easiest and most 
thorough manner. Now we can continue our plant- 
ing and seed sowing and have the best soil condi- 
tions for our work. 

Spinach is one of our very hardiest crops, and seed 
can be sowed very early in spring, and again in 
September for late fall and winter crops, and in 
October for winter and spring crop. 
Spinach. ^^^ differences between the leading 
varieties are slight. I prefer Long- Standing Sum- 
mer spinach, especially for spring planting. Sow 
seed with the drill. The indicator will tell you how 
to set it for sowing this seed. Don't raise more than 
you are reasonably sure that you can sell. If de- 
mand and prices are good when the plants have 
made some, but not their full growth, it may in 
some cases pay to thin them, leaving the remaining 
ones three or four inches apart to come to full size, 
and selling the thinnings. We use ordinary ten- 
quart peach baskets in which to put up the crop for 
market. Or the plants may be put in bushel crates 



98 GROWING RADISHES. 

or barrels, and sold by the peck or other measure, 
or by the barrel to retailers. Usually we cut the 
whole rows down as fast as the crop is needed for 
sale, pushing a sharp and bright ''crescent" hoe 
under the plants just on top of the ground, thus 
cutting the plants off and leaving them ready for 
gathering, washing and putting up for market. 
Applications of nitrate of soda often have a wonder- 
ful effect on this crop. If we are crowded for room, 
we sow a row of spinach between each two rows of 
early cabbages. The spinach has to be taken off in 
good season, when all the space is needed for cab- 
bages. 

Radishes, with us, are chiefly a catch crop or filler. 
In some cases we sow a little patch all by themselves. 
Usually we sow a row between each two rows of 
early cauliflower, early cabbage, and 
perhaps other crops that are planted in 
rows two or more feet apart, and which do not need 
all this space for four or flve weeks. At the end of 
that time the radishes are all off, and the row can 
be cultivated and hoed. Often there is a good local 
demand for radishes, and for whatever kind of rad- 
ishes this demand is, this kind we must plant. I 
usually plant only the quick-growing, early turnip- 
rooted sorts, such as Early Scarlet Forcing, Early 
Erfurt, Earliest Beep Scarlet Turnip, and a score of 
others which differ from these mostly in name. 
French Breakfast is a favorite in some markets, 
while in others the long or half -long varieties, such 
as Long Scarlet, White Strassburg, etc., find most 
favor with buyers. 

The market gardener, in order to have a continu- 



GROWING CELEEY. 99 

ous supply, must sow a row or two every few days. 
Sometimes the weather or other conditions are not 
just right for one sowing, and the whole may be en- 
tirely worthless, or ruined by maggots. By sowing 
often, a row here and a row there, wherever a little 
strip becomes available, we have others coming on 
should one lot be of no account. We also mix a 
small proportion of seed of some early turnip-rooted 
sorts with our carrot, beet and asparagus seed. The 
radishes are soon taken up and out of the way of 
the regular crop. Sandy soil and plenty of old 
compost are good things for radishes. 

Celery plants for the main (fall or winter) crop are 
usually readily salable, and will bring in quite a 
little money. We want not only our own supply of 
good plants, but all that we think we can 
^ *^^' sell beside. The richest and warmest spot 
of ground on the premises is, therefore, reserved for 
the celery plants. Giant Pascal is now the leading 
sort. Rows are marked out, rather shallow, one 
foot apart, and the seed is sown by hand, an ounce 
being sufficient for at least 200 feet row. You may 
draw the rake along lengthwise of the rows, thus 
covering the seed very lightly. I usually walk on 
the row heel-to-toe fashion, and seldom fail to have 
good success in getting the plants to start promptly 
and evenly. The wheel-hoe must be started just as 
soon as some of the plants show above ground. Let 
the knives run close to the row to narrow it down to 
an inch or so. There will be too many plants any- 
way, and this is as good a way of preliminary thin- 
ning as any. Soon after we follow with the hand 
weeder, destroying what weeds may have started, 



100 PARSLEY. BEETS 

and at the same time narrowing the row of plants 
still more, so that we have from twenty-five to fifty 
left to the running foot. You can easily raise 100,000 
good plants and more on one-tenth of an acre of 
suitable soil, and if all sold, even at only $2 per 
thousand, they would bring $200 at the very lowest 
calculation. We like to give them an occasional 
top-dressing of nitrate of soda, say a pound to the 
square rod. The tops may grow very rank. In that 
case it will be well, or even necessary, for the sake 
of getting short and stocky plants, to clip off a good 
share of the rank growth. These clippings or shear- 
ings will come in handy for soup celery. Tie in a 
bunch all that you can encircle with thumb and the 
fingers of one hand, just as you would tie and sell 
parsley. 

Parsley is required to a limited amount In every 
market garden. Sow seed in same way as you would 
celery or carrot. Firm the ground well, 
*" *^' and thin the plants to stand an inch or 
two apart in the row. In most markets the tops 
alone are used, tied in bunches same as soup celery. 
Sometimes the entire plants are wanted. They are 
pulled up, washed and tied in bunches. 

To have table beets ready for market at the earli- 
est possible date, we must set the nice, strong plants 
grown under glass, in open ground as early as that 
is in proper shape. The rows are to be 
one foot apart, and the plants may be set 
three or four inches apart. But we will need a con- 
tinuous supply, and therefore must also sow seed in 
open ground at same time, and every few weeks 
after that as long as we expect to have call for the 



GROWING CARROTS. 101 

crop. Eclipse is the leading sort. We use the 
garden drill, but always set it to sow less seed than 
directed on the indicator. Seed of these early table 
sorts is much smaller than that of the larger sorts. 
Weeding and thinaing (to stand three or four inches 
apart in the row) must be promptly seen to. The 
young beets, when of suitable size, are pulled, 
washed and tied in bunches of four to six each. 
The thinnings may be sold for greens. Nitrate of 
soda will help the crop, same as it does spinach, etc. 

Carrots, like beets, should be sown as early as the 
ground can be worked, and quite often during the 
season, in order to have a continuous supply of fresh. 
Carrots. ^^^^^^ tender carrots. Early Scarlet 
Horn, Oxheart, and Earliest Forcing are 
what we want for our purposes. At first we use 
the carrots quite small, as soup carrots, tying them 
in bunches like radishes or beets. Seed may be 
sown with the drill. Cultivate, weed and thin 
promptly. 

There are also a few other vegetables, seed of 
which may be sown early, if we choose, but which 
we are not quite in such a hurry to sow as we are 
to sow those already named. Among them we have 
parsnips, salsify, pickling onions, etc. 

Our aim is to get the seed of vegetables, which we 
must and will have at the earliest possible moment, 
into the ground and growing just as soon and as 
quickly as as we can, and then begin setting our 
lettuce, cabbage, cauliflower and onion plants. 



CHAPTER XII. 



EARLY PLANTS AND LATER CROPS. 



nr HE first of our plants to go from cold frame to 
open ground in spring, are the lettuce plants. 
We mark the ground, otherwise prepared as for 
vegetables from seed, in rows one foot apart, and if 
we have penty of room, set the plants one foot apart 
in the rows; although nine inches distance between 
the plants, with the rows a foot apart, would be 
ample. Our aim must be to make 
the Earif Plants. ^^^ P^^^^s take a f resh start and 
' ' come to a head ' ' as soon as prac- 
ticable, and for this reason we should take up the 
plants with all the roots and as much soil adhering to 
them as needed >to prevent any check whatever to 
their growth. Then carry them to the patch with 
proper care, and set in their proper places with con- 
siderable firmness. Cultivate as you do all other 
close-planted small vegetable crops, namely, the 
oftener the better, and sell when large enough. Usu- 
ally there is a good demand for this first early out- 
door lettuce, at good prices. Cabbage and cauliflower 
plants, when taken up with the same care as recom- 
mended for lettuce plants, and set out firmly in rich 
garden soil, two feet apart each way, will also grow 
right along, and give an early, salable and usually 



SETTING ONION PLANTS. 103 

profitable crop. Our plan is to drill in a row of rad- 
ishes or spinach between each two rows of early 
cabbage and cauliflower. Cultivate and hoe often 
and thoroughly. Applications of nitrate of soda, a 
small handful around each plant, will seldom fail to 
give good results and fine cabbages. One of the 
easiest methods of preventing injury by maggot, 
lice and worms, is to throw a small handful of 
tobacco dust into the heart of each plant while 
young, and to blow the same material all over the 
plant when larger, with a powder bellows. Spray- 
ing with salt water or a solution of muriate of potash, 
or of kainit, will also clear these plants of worms, 
etc. A spoonful of salt sprinkled over the plants 
will do the same. 

Next come the Prizetaker or other onion plants. 
Pull them up carefully from the flats or seed-bed, 
trim off the tips of the roots and also a portion of 
the top, and then ^'dibble" or "finger" them into the 
loose soil in the rows one foot apart, and the plants 
three inches apart in the rows. You can set them 
from one to two inches deep. Press the soil firmly 
to the roots. 

This job of setting onion plants we will do well 
to hurry up and carry to completion as quickly as 
possible. The sooner good plants are out in spring, 
the sooner they will take a new start in open ground, 
and the sooner they will give us good bulbs, either 
for bunching or to be sold as dry onions. The 
market gardener has use for them in both shapes. 
Sometimes it will pay well to pull up gradually a 
portion of the crop and market as green onions, for 
even if we lose a good deal of growth and bulk, the 



104 LATER CROPS. 

price is usually quite acceptable. At any rate, by 
crowding these green onions on the market while 
they sell well, we insure an early sale of the crop 
at good, and often far better, prices than we could 
obtain for the full-grown crop of dry onions in the 
fall. 

By the time that onion seedlings are set out, we 
will be ready for sowing parsnip, salsify, pickling 
onions, etc. For parsnip and salsify the land is 
prepared as for beets or carrots, and 
crops^from Seed. *^^ ^eed may be sown by hand in 
shallow drills a fool apart. Both 
crops are to be marketed in winter or early spring, 
but only a small patch of them will probably be 
needed. The culture is about the same as for car- 
rots. Plants for winter market must be taken up 
in the fall, and stored in a cellar or root house; 
those for spring market are left in the ground 
over winter. Pickling onions are an important 
crop. I use the Barletta altogether, and find it to 
pay well even if the crop has to be sold through 
regular commission channels. Sow seed with 
garden drill, in rows one foot apart, using at the 
rate of 40 to 60 pounds per acre. Go through the 
rows a few times with the wheel hoe and give at 
least one thorough hand weeding. But the bulbs 
begin to ripen up early in July, and by the middle 
or end of the month may be taken up, cured and 
cleaned for immediate sale. I usually ship mine in 
peach baskets, lined with paper and covered with a 
cover of strawboard. These onions usually bring 
me 10 cents a quart at wholesale. 

Of course we want some early potatoes to sell 



POTATOES. 105 

with the rest of the vegetables, and we want them 
as early as as we can possibly get them, for the early 
ones bring the price. We there- 
r y a oes. ^^^^ select the earliest sort we can 
find. I use the Early Ohio for this purpose altogether. 
It is days, perhaps weeks, earlier than other so-called 
early potatoes (like Early Rose, Hebron, etc.). The 
Early Ohio wants good, strong loam. Seed should 
be spread out in a light, warm room — say under the 
greenhouse benches— in February or early March. 
It will ' ' green ' ' and start some short but strong 
sprouts, and when planted out, in drills four inches 
deep and two and one-half to two and three-fourths 
feet apart, with pieces 12 inches apart in the rows, 
will start up promptly and give an early crop. The 
Early Ohio will bear heavy seeding. I always plant 
medium-sized tubers whole, and larger ones just cut 
in halves. The potato beetles will lie in wait for the 
plants, being the first food they can get, and they 
will often pounce upon them when the plants are 
only just breaking through the ground. We dis- 
pose of these first comers by hand-picking, and later 
on use Paris green (applied in water or as powder) 
to kill the slugs. You can commence digging the 
crop when the stalks just show a slight tendency to 
turn yellow. Level cultivation (or nearly so) is, on 
the whole, preferable to much hilling. 

The market gardener who has a general retail 
trade and the necessary land, may also raise a mod- 
erate quantity of late potatoes. By 

Late Potatoes. n- .. i -^x. -u- xv 

selling them, along with his other 
stuff, in small quantities, by the peck or half bushel, 
he will secure the highest retail rates, and this will 



106 POTATOES AND CORN^. 

pay him even in a season of low prices. Tlie Free- 
man will do well on rich loams, and for customers 
who appreciate high quality, may be relied on to 
give satisfaction. For sale among indiscriminating 
buyers, I think I would prefer the big yielders, like 
Rural New Yorker No. 2, the Carmans and others, 
which can be depended upon for big crops even in 
ordinary potato soil. Give garden culture (i e., 
frequent and thorough cultivation) and you will 
grow garden yields (i. e. , large amounts on a small 
area). Late potatoes may be planted any time from 
May to July. Sometimes we can raise them profita- 
bly on land just cleared from early peas, lettuce, 
radishes, beets, spinach, strawberries, etc. 

Plenty of Sweet Corn may be planted if there is 

room for it. By planting Cory, or some equally 

good early soit, lust as soon as the 

Sweet Corn. ^ -, i i i x 

ground has become warm enough to 
sprout the seed, we will usually insure a supply of 
fairly good corn very early. It will pay us to run a 
little risk, and my experience is that this early corn 
is seldom hurt much by a late frost. A little later 
we may plant the larger and later kinds, especially 
Evergreen. It is a handy crop, both for its yield of 
ears and for the stalks, which make such excellent 
fodder for the family cow, or the horse either. 

When the ground has become warmed through, and 
danger from late freezes is nearly past, we may begin 
to plant seed of melons, cucumbers and squashes 
in open ground. The location, of course* 
should be warm, the soil heavily ma- 
nured and well prepared. The early cucumbers 
and melons, like most other early stuff, catch the 



GROWING MELONS. 107 

price. My plan to secure earliness is to utilize all 
the sashes possible (even those of common windows, 
wherever they can be spared at this time, from out- 
buildings, etc). Set little frames at proper distances 
all over the patch; plant a hill, or two or three hills, 
in the centre of the frame, in the usual way, and 
cover with the sashes, giving more or less ventila- 
tion, according to the season and weather. The 
plants here start up nicely, are reasonably protected 
against insect attacks, and grow right along. If 
bugs do find their way under the glass, and endan- 
ger the safety of the plants, a live toad may be put 
into the frame. It will make short work of the 
bugs. Along in June the sashes are taken off en- 
tirely, and a week or two later the frames also. 
White Spine and Improved Long Green are good 
varieties of cucumbers. 

Among melons I know of nothing better than 
Emerald Gem. It is a rare gem indeed, so far 
as quality is concerned, and far ahead in earliness 
of any other melon variety with which I am ac- 
quainted. But it is small and not a fill-basket. To 
make the most of it you want to use rich soil and to 
plant quite close, four feet distance between the 
hills each way usually being sufficient; and to have 
a succession during the entire season you must make 
later plantings, even well up to July. Customers 
who appreciate a good thing will want no other 
melon after they once have a taste of the Emerald 
Gem. Tip-Top, however, is also good, and for a 
general run of customers you may have to plant 
larger sorts, too, like Nutmeg, Miller's Cream, etc. 

Only a moderate number of summer squashes will 



108 GROWING SQUASHES. 

usually be required. I prefer Summer Crookneck, 
but in some markets other sorts, such as White 
Bush Scalloped, etc., take the lead. Plant either of 
them in hills, about four feet apart each way. The 
plants are somewhat hardier than most other vines. 

For winter squashes nothing better has yet been 
found than the old Hubbard. It wants rich soil 
and plenty of room. Have the hills ten or twelve 
feet apart each way, and leave only two good plants 
to the hill. The market gardener may not have 
so much room for so spreading a crop, but if he has, 
he can do far worse than plant Hubbards. The 
squashes keep well in a dry room and a temperature 
of about 60 degrees Fahrenheit, and can be sold at 
two or three cents a pound retail, all winter long. 
Be sure that you use tobacco dust or bone meal, or 
better, a mixture of both, freely, all around the 
different vines while the plants are small. A better 
bug preventive has never yet been found. The 
ground around the young plants may be kept cov- 
ered an inch deep with the mixture. It will help 
the plants, too, rather than hurt them. 

Not until after all danger from late frosts is past, 

here usually the first of June, the time has come to 

transfer the tender greenhouse-grown plants to open 

ground. Tomatoes are the first ones 

piantrA|ain. ^moug them to go out. Our early 
ones (Early Leader, Ruby, Maule's 
Earliest, New Imperial), all of which stand in large- 
sized wooden plant boxes, are now in bloom, and 
even well set with fruit. We set them four feet 
apart each way, usually leaving the boxes on. Of 
course these large stocky plants grow right along, 



SETTING TENDER PLANTS. 109 

and will have ripe fruit in July, when it always 
brings a good price. If we have a fair sprinkling of 
New Imperial among these plants, we can also de- 
pend on having a good supply of excellent late 
tomatoes, and probably all we want for our trade, 
for late tomatoes are easily produced in large quan- 
tities, and are usually in heavy supply, and a drug 
on the market. Egg plants also sell well to a limited 
extent. Set a reasonable number of plants in same 
way as tomatoes, only about twice as close, namely, 
two feet apart in the rows, and the latter three or 
four feet apart. Soil should be very rich, which is 
not so necessary for tomatoes. Pepper plants (Ruby 
King), can be set still closer. The cucumber, melon 
and squash plants started in boxes or pots, under 
glass, are the next, and perhaps the last, to be set 
in open ground. Have the hills as far apart as made 
when seed is sown in open ground, and set the plants, 
boxes and all. Firm the soil around the plants well 
with the feet, and at once cover with the tobacco 
and bone dust mixture as already has been men- 
tioned. 

Celery is a most important crop, and one that 
usually pays well. When you have good plants 
to set in May, you have about solved the problem 
of raising a good crop of early celery. You can set 
the plants in rows, the rows being 2 or 2J 
* *'^' feet apart, and the plants 5 inches apart 
in the rows. Gfive good cultivation at all times, and 
copious applications of water during dry weather. 
Blanch with boards. Or you may set the plants in 
the hotbeds and cold frames, then out of use, say 
six inches apart each way, and give plenty of water 



110 CULTIVATION. 

right along, whether it rains occasionally or not.. 
For late celery set Giant Pascal plants in July, 
making the rows from three to four feet apart, and 
setting the plants five inches apart in the rows. Of 
course the ground should be well enriched. In 
September earth up or blanch with boards. Plants 
for Winter or Spring use need not be fully blanched, 
and can be stored in trenches or regular root house. 
Little remains to be said on the subjects of seed 
sowing and plant setting, except that the whole area 
of the market garden should be 

Successive Planting- ., , -, . . ^ . ^i 

kept producing something all sea- 
son long. When one crop is off another must be 
put in. The successful market gardener is harvest- 
ing and planting all the time. By all means crowd 
the crops all that it is possible to do. Never leave 
even a little patch unoccupied. The idle land 
breeds weeds. 

All the necessary directions about cultivation of 
garden crops may be crowded into a few words: 
keep the wheel-hoes, both for hand and 
horse use, going all the time, and let no 
weed show its head above the ground without hit- 
ting it at once. In short, give weeds no show what- 
ever, and keep the surface of the ground well 
pulverized at all times. This is all anyone can do, 
and what all must do in order to secure maximum 
crops. Do this, and you do your part. Then trust 
in Providence. It is useless to be ever so trustful 
with folded hands. 



PART III 



"A LITTLE PURSE WELL 
FILLED." 



WORKING THE MARKET. 



CHAPTER XIII 



WAYS OP SELLING. 



T^O RAISE good garden products may sometimes 
have its difficulties. These the good gardeners 
have learned to overcome, and it is for this reason 
that vegetables are now so abundant and cheap in the 
wholesale markets. Far greater difficulties than are 
met in growing vegetables are in the way of securing 
satisfactory prices for them. The mar- 
Smng. ket gardener, even if he knows how to 
grow good vegetables, cannot hope to 
make a financial success of it, unless he also finds 
ways of getting them before appreciative buyers. The 
marketing question, indeed, is the one great prob- 
lem which many otherwise good gardeners have not 
yet learned to solve to their satisfaction and profit. 
In the first place every gardener has to adjust the 
marketing feature of his business to his surround- 
ings and the conditions of his available markets. 
Sometimes he will find it most convenient, and 
most satisfactory in the long run, to sell his berries, 
potatoes, onions and celery, etc., to grocery stores 
and other retailers. In other places, he will have to 
go on the open market first, selling to whoever 
comes along and is willing to pay his prices, and 



114 THE RETAIL TRADE. 

afterwards peddle to consumers or storekeepers 

what is left after market hours; or he may prefer to 

peddle all his produce directly to consumers. My 

experience with commission merchants 

^D^aihfgs!' (although I appreciate all the difficul- 
ties of their situation) is that I send 
products to them only when I cannot sell directly 
to customers. 

The average young market gardener will yet find 
it the best way to hunt up a retail trade, either in 
the city market, selling from his stand or wagon, 
by establishing a regular peddler' s route, or in both 
ways. But the market must be " worked " rather 
than left to take care of itself. 

In the first place, grow first-class garden stuff. 
Have a clean, tastily painted and conveniently ar- 
ranged, covered market wagon, drawn by a good 
looking horse or team, in bright, clean harness. 
Employ a good salesman (even if only for a month, 
if you prefer to do your own peddling) to establish 
a route in the better quarters of the city. Make 
regular trips, and always carry a variety of good 
products, even if you must buy a portion of them. 
Make friends with the people along your route. 
Ask fair, but not extravagant prices. Always deal 
fairly and honestly by your customers, invariably 
giving good measure. Don't crowd a poor article 
on any customer. If you follow these rules, I am 
sure you can establish a trade that will pay you 
well. 



CHAPTER XIV. 



PREPARING VEGETABLES FOR MARKET. 



T N SELLING vegetables, our aim always must be to 
tempt the buyer, not only by superior quality 
of the goods offered to them, but also by their neat 
and appetizing appearance. You should put your 
berries, etc., in clean and neat packages Always 
manage so that the basket can go 

in Ne'wplckages. ^^^^ *^^ ^^^i^' ^^^ ^se new bas- 
kets on the next trip. Baskets 
and packages can be had at very little cost now-a- 
days, and it pays to use new ones every time. Never 
use a stained package. Never use a clumsy one. 

In bunching vegetables follow the customs of your 

particular market. See how others do it, and then 

try to do a little better. All vegetables should be 

cleaned with scrupulous care. You 

v^etawfs. should have a tank with a supply 

and escape pipe, and a wash table or 

stand near it, somewhat on the plan suggested in 

the illustration. Wash and scrub, with brushes, 

etc , every lot of vegetables until not a speck of dirt 

remains on them. Then tie neatly in bunches of 

just such a size as the market demands. When a 



116 



WASHING VEGETABLES. 



certain kind of vegetable is scarce, because offered 
out of its regular season, or for other causes, tlie 
bunches may be made smaller, and in time of 



I I I ' iIj. 




TANK AND TABLE FOR WASHING VEGETABLES. 

plentiful supply they will have to be made larger. 
It is a point for nice discrimination and good judg- 
ment. 

A New Jersey gardener (Chas Beck) suggests the 
use of a crate, made of slats or wire screen, etc. , as 
here shown, for washing vegetables. The crate can 




CRATE FOR WASHING VEGETABLES. 



be filled with roots, or potatoes, or whatever is to 
be washed. Two persons take hold of it, and may 
raise or lower it into a tank of water, and by shak- 
ing it, etc., soon wash the vegetables clean. Clean 
vegetables sell much more quickly than dirty ones. 



APPENDIX. 



A FINAL SUGGESTIONt 



A NOTHER thing that the young market gardener 
cannot neglect save at the risk of a good por- 
tion of his success and profits, is to read good 
horticultural literature. Good journals keep you 
informed about modern improvement in methods 
and the value of newly introduced 
^ journi^s!*^ varieties. In many cases the an- 
nouncement of novelties offered by 
the seed and nursery trade may savor of Barnum- 
ism, but sometimes one really good new thing will 
bring many dollars into the pockets of the gardener 
who recognizes the value of the novelty early, and 
takes hold of it promptly. 

Full details of growing all the different vegetable 

crops are found in "How to Make the Garden Pay *' 

(price, $2.00), and the young market gardener will 

need this book as a special guide 

^Tardef pay.^^' in his business. Being revised in 

1895, it is fully up to the times, 

and contains complete chapters on the best methods 



118 GARDEN BOOKS. 

of overcoming the fungus and insect enemies of 
garden crops. 

Then a study of ^'Practical Farm Chemistry" 
(price, $1.00 bound, 60 cents paper) will give you a 
clear insight into the character of the different 
manures, and show you how to 
Farm'Shemiitry. ^^e them intelligently and with 
best effects. It is written plain- 
ly and practically, and with the avoidance of all 
scientific phraseology, so that anybody of ordinary 
schooling and ordinary intelligence can understand. 
The work itself is not as formidable as its title might 
lead to infer. It is thoroughly practical, and really 
a treatise on '' Manures, Where to Get and How to 
Use Them." 

I find as much money in onions as in any other 
garden crop. Possibly this may be the case with 
you. At any rate, it will pay you 
onfon'ouu^lre. ^o read "The New Onion Culture," 
(price, 50 cents). It gives full in- 
structions about the new method which we practice 
with such gratifying results. In short, be a reader 
and thinker as well as a worker. 

Another money crop is celery, and in many cases 

the young market gardener can do far worse than 

make this one of his specialties. If he does, he 

^ ^ ^ should study "Celery for Profit" 

Celery for Profit. . . ,.,.,. l- x. - v. 

(price 30 cents), which is pub- 
lished as an expose of modern methods in celery 
growing, and gives all the details of the business 
that the grower for market should know or try to 
learn. 



GARDEN BOOKS. 119 

Prof. Taft's book on ''Greenhouse Construction 
and Heating " (price $1.50), has already been men- 
tioned. When the younsr market 

Taft's Book on j ?!•,-. 

Greenhouse Building, gardener s busiuess extends and 
compels him to build more and 
larger houses, he will find the perusal of this work 
of great help. 



The books here mentioned may be obtained from 
the author, to whom orders for book, with price for 
same, should be addressed at La Salle, Niagara 
County, N. Y., or from any agricultural paper or 
general book store. 



fireenhouse Heating 
and Ventilating, 

Horticultural Architecture and 
Building. 




HIXCHINGS & CO. 

Eiubiished 1844. 233 Mercer St., NEW YORK. 

FIVE PATTERNS TO CHOOSE FROM. Rosehouses, Greenhouses, 

; ; Etc., of Iron Frame Con- 

Nineteen Sizes. struction erected complete, 

Perfect Sash Raising Apparatus. sM^pefr'eTdTfterect^^ 

Iron Frame Benches with Wood or Slate Tops. Mention Book, 

Swd 4c. Postage for Illustrated Catalogue, 







Plant Boxes 



for starting 



Melon and 
Tomato Plants in 



Hot Beds. 



MADE IN THE FOLIyOWING SIZES'. 

4 inch cube, 4}i inch cube, 5 inch cube and 6x6 square 
by 5 inches deep. Sent only in the flat. Weight per 
1,000 boxes, about 200 lbs. One pound of tacks will make 
1,000 boxes. 

PRICES: 
4 inch cubes, per 1000 ..... $2.25 



4% " 

5 " " " " 

6x6x5 inch cubes " '• 
Tacks per lb., 2 oz. 
Magnetic Hammar, each 
Form for making up boxes 



2.25 

2.25 

2.50 

30 

20 

25 



Write for catalogue of all kinds of Fruit Packages, Berry Crates and 
Baskets. Sent free. Address. 

COLBY HINKLEY CO., 

BENTON HARBOR, MICH. 




A Model 



Greenhouse 




Must be fitted 
with the 



Best Valves, Fittings «"«« i 
Ventilating Apparatus. | 

These may be obtained from ... 

Catalogue on ColdWelhWIICOX CO., 



application. 



NEWBURQH, N. Y. 



J®®®® ^>?fX?)®5X^;^®R©©®(g@®®®®®®®®®®®®®®^®®®6'.®®®® ^ 




Richards' 



TRANSPLANTING 
IMPLEMENTS!! 



Patented April 2, 1895. A cheap, sure and simple 
way to transplant all kinds of plants; guaranteed not to 
disturb their growth. The inventor has transplanted 
thousands of plants with these implements and is there- 
fore qualified to say what they will do. Endorsed by 
many of the most prominent plant growers. Send for circular giv- 
ing testimonials and directions how to use, and other valuable infor- 
mation to strawberry growers. Price per set of six transplanters, 
one excavator and one ejector, $2.50. Extra transplanters 20 

cents each. Agents wanted. Please mention this booh. 

F. RICHARDS, Freeport, N. Y. 



Cornwall, Nov. 21, 1895. 



Orange Co. Nurseries, Cornwall, N. Y. 

T. J. Dwyer, Prop. 
Mr. F. Richards:— 

After a trial of your transplanting instrument on different parts of my nur- 
series to-day, I am satisfied that you have a very valuable new invention that 
will remove plants of all kinds without the slightest check to the growth. It 
is a tool that should have a place in every garden, quite as necessary to the 
gardener as a pocket knife. I am pleased to be able to indorse this valuable 
implement. Please send me five sets for use at our nurseries. 

Very truly yours, T. J. DWYER, 



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